Qaddafi pitches tent in Paris for Sarkozy Summit
Friday, 14 December 2007
Celestine Bohlen
NICOLAS Sarkozy welcomed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to Paris for a five-day visit, stepping up the French president's Middle East diplomatic efforts.
Qaddafi, who pitched a Bedouin-style heated tent in the gardens of Baron Gustave de Rothschild's one-time mansion, has two meetings set with Sarkozy. He'll sign about $15 billion of contracts before leaving on Dec. 15, Sarkozy told reporters in Paris.
Sarkozy has broken with Middle East policies of his predecessor Jacques Chirac. He has renewed contact with Syria to try to solve Lebanese political gridlock and joined the US campaign against Iran's nuclear program, all while openly bidding for more business from the region. The effort has already yielded more than $10 billion of contracts for French companies, including Areva SA, Alstom SA and Total SA.
His approach to the Middle East is more "concrete'' than Chirac's, said Denis Bauchard, a former French diplomat and now senior fellow at the French Institute for International Affairs in Paris. ``It is a style that is typical of Sarkozy, very pragmatic, very direct.''
Qaddafi arrived in Paris in steady rain. He pulled into the courtyard of the Elysee Palace courtyard in a white stretch Mercedes, wearing a rough brown cloak and a black chechia, the traditional Libyan cap. He was greeted on the steps of the palace by the French president.
In Libya, a pariah nation until it ended its nuclear- weapons program in 2003, Sarkozy's political and commercial interests intersected two months after he took office.
Sarkozy, 52, and his then-wife Cecilia were instrumental in gaining the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had spent eight years in a Libyan jail on unsubstantiated charges of infecting children with HIV.
Cecilia Sarkozy went twice to Libya and met with Qaddafi, before accompanying the medics from Tripoli to Sofia on a French government plane on July 24. Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli the next day and signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in civilian nuclear energy.
In August, European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. announced an agreement with Libya for the sale of anti-tank missiles.
As Libya ``rebuilds'' its relationship with the West, Sarkozy spokesman David Martinon said the talks this week will include a possible weapons deal. ``We're working on it,'' he said at a Dec. 7 briefing. ``There's no arms embargo'' against Libya. Qaddafi, 65, may also sign deals in the nuclear, health, and agriculture industries, Martinon said.
The visit has sparked criticism both from opposition politicians and within Sarkozy's Cabinet.
"Our country is not a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can come and clean the blood of his misdeeds off his feet,'' said Rama Yade, secretary for human rights in the Foreign Ministry, according to an interview published in Le Parisien daily. "France should not accept this kiss of death.''
France maintained a dialogue even when Libya was an international outlaw because of its links to terrorist attacks, including the downing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, and the 1989 bombing of a French UTA plane over Niger, which killed 170 people. France served at times as a diplomatic channel even as the U.S. was bombing Tripoli.
While Sarkozy isn't alone in courting Libya, holder of Africa's largest oil reserves, he has sought to stake out new foreign-policy ground for France. As in domestic policy, where he has cut taxes and pushed to deregulate the labor market, he is a self-styled breaker of what he calls "taboos.''
He has sought to warm relations with Israel and the US and engage Syria, moves that weren't in Chirac's playbook.
"The change of tone vis-a-vis Israel is quite spectacular,'' said Dominique Moisi, senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris. "He repeats regularly that France is best friends with Israel.''
France has also moved closer to the U.S. in pressing Iran with tougher economic sanctions -- even after a U.S. intelligence report last week that Iran suspended its weapons program in 2003.
Sarkozy last month sent two advisers, including Jean-David Levitte, former ambassador to Washington, to Syria in an attempt to break a political deadlock in neighboring Lebanon. Chirac had broken relations with Syria after the assassination in 2005 of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, in which Syrian agents were implicated.
Sarkozy already has made two visits to the former French colonies of Morocco and Algeria, where he pitched his idea for a union of states ringing the Mediterranean Sea.
The trip to Morocco resulted in more than 3 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of contracts. Alstom, Gaz de France SA, Total and Bull SA signed contracts worth more than 5 billion euros during Sarkozy's trip to Algeria.
For his part, Sarkozy told French businessmen in Algiers Dec. 4 to increase their investments in the region. ``We could go much farther, much faster,'' he said.
At the center of the effort is energy -- French nuclear power and the Middle East's oil and gas reserves.
"The sharing of civilian nuclear technology will be one of the foundations of a pact of trust the West must reach with the Muslim world,'' Sarkozy said in Constantine, Algeria, on Dec. 4.
The previous day in Algiers, he'd signed a civil nuclear cooperation accord, which he hailed as the first such agreement with an Arab country. The pact calls for training programs and sets a framework for future projects for state-owned Areva, the world's biggest builder of nuclear plants. In Morocco, Areva signed an agreement for the development of a uranium-extraction project.
The strategy carries a message to Iran, said Moisi. ``If you renounce the military use of nuclear energy, we will help you to get your civilian program going,'' he said.
Bloomberg
NICOLAS Sarkozy welcomed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to Paris for a five-day visit, stepping up the French president's Middle East diplomatic efforts.
Qaddafi, who pitched a Bedouin-style heated tent in the gardens of Baron Gustave de Rothschild's one-time mansion, has two meetings set with Sarkozy. He'll sign about $15 billion of contracts before leaving on Dec. 15, Sarkozy told reporters in Paris.
Sarkozy has broken with Middle East policies of his predecessor Jacques Chirac. He has renewed contact with Syria to try to solve Lebanese political gridlock and joined the US campaign against Iran's nuclear program, all while openly bidding for more business from the region. The effort has already yielded more than $10 billion of contracts for French companies, including Areva SA, Alstom SA and Total SA.
His approach to the Middle East is more "concrete'' than Chirac's, said Denis Bauchard, a former French diplomat and now senior fellow at the French Institute for International Affairs in Paris. ``It is a style that is typical of Sarkozy, very pragmatic, very direct.''
Qaddafi arrived in Paris in steady rain. He pulled into the courtyard of the Elysee Palace courtyard in a white stretch Mercedes, wearing a rough brown cloak and a black chechia, the traditional Libyan cap. He was greeted on the steps of the palace by the French president.
In Libya, a pariah nation until it ended its nuclear- weapons program in 2003, Sarkozy's political and commercial interests intersected two months after he took office.
Sarkozy, 52, and his then-wife Cecilia were instrumental in gaining the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had spent eight years in a Libyan jail on unsubstantiated charges of infecting children with HIV.
Cecilia Sarkozy went twice to Libya and met with Qaddafi, before accompanying the medics from Tripoli to Sofia on a French government plane on July 24. Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli the next day and signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in civilian nuclear energy.
In August, European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. announced an agreement with Libya for the sale of anti-tank missiles.
As Libya ``rebuilds'' its relationship with the West, Sarkozy spokesman David Martinon said the talks this week will include a possible weapons deal. ``We're working on it,'' he said at a Dec. 7 briefing. ``There's no arms embargo'' against Libya. Qaddafi, 65, may also sign deals in the nuclear, health, and agriculture industries, Martinon said.
The visit has sparked criticism both from opposition politicians and within Sarkozy's Cabinet.
"Our country is not a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can come and clean the blood of his misdeeds off his feet,'' said Rama Yade, secretary for human rights in the Foreign Ministry, according to an interview published in Le Parisien daily. "France should not accept this kiss of death.''
France maintained a dialogue even when Libya was an international outlaw because of its links to terrorist attacks, including the downing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, and the 1989 bombing of a French UTA plane over Niger, which killed 170 people. France served at times as a diplomatic channel even as the U.S. was bombing Tripoli.
While Sarkozy isn't alone in courting Libya, holder of Africa's largest oil reserves, he has sought to stake out new foreign-policy ground for France. As in domestic policy, where he has cut taxes and pushed to deregulate the labor market, he is a self-styled breaker of what he calls "taboos.''
He has sought to warm relations with Israel and the US and engage Syria, moves that weren't in Chirac's playbook.
"The change of tone vis-a-vis Israel is quite spectacular,'' said Dominique Moisi, senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris. "He repeats regularly that France is best friends with Israel.''
France has also moved closer to the U.S. in pressing Iran with tougher economic sanctions -- even after a U.S. intelligence report last week that Iran suspended its weapons program in 2003.
Sarkozy last month sent two advisers, including Jean-David Levitte, former ambassador to Washington, to Syria in an attempt to break a political deadlock in neighboring Lebanon. Chirac had broken relations with Syria after the assassination in 2005 of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, in which Syrian agents were implicated.
Sarkozy already has made two visits to the former French colonies of Morocco and Algeria, where he pitched his idea for a union of states ringing the Mediterranean Sea.
The trip to Morocco resulted in more than 3 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of contracts. Alstom, Gaz de France SA, Total and Bull SA signed contracts worth more than 5 billion euros during Sarkozy's trip to Algeria.
For his part, Sarkozy told French businessmen in Algiers Dec. 4 to increase their investments in the region. ``We could go much farther, much faster,'' he said.
At the center of the effort is energy -- French nuclear power and the Middle East's oil and gas reserves.
"The sharing of civilian nuclear technology will be one of the foundations of a pact of trust the West must reach with the Muslim world,'' Sarkozy said in Constantine, Algeria, on Dec. 4.
The previous day in Algiers, he'd signed a civil nuclear cooperation accord, which he hailed as the first such agreement with an Arab country. The pact calls for training programs and sets a framework for future projects for state-owned Areva, the world's biggest builder of nuclear plants. In Morocco, Areva signed an agreement for the development of a uranium-extraction project.
The strategy carries a message to Iran, said Moisi. ``If you renounce the military use of nuclear energy, we will help you to get your civilian program going,'' he said.
Bloomberg