FRANCE, the US and the Iraq war

France showed little inclination to make up with the US. President Jacques Chirac took another swipe at the recent US-led war on Iraq, saying the operation's success did not make it legitimate. Despite French efforts to mend fences with Washington, Chirac remained unrepentant about his anti-war stance ahead of a 1-3 June summit that will see US President George Bush set foot on French soil for the first time since the Iraq conflict. "A war that lacks legitimacy does not acquire legitimacy just because it has been won," Chirac said in an advance release of the interview with the Financial Times. France sought to patch up relations after Paris infuriated Washington with its opposition to the Iraq war. Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said French-US relations were excellent. However, Chirac stressed that France's support for a US-drafted resolution ending UN sanctions against Iraq did not mean Washington had got all it wanted with the measure. "The US has had to put a lot of water in its wine over the last 15 days at the UN," Chirac said, adding of the British prime minister: "Here, I think, the role of Tony Blair has been positive." Relations between France and Britain, the US' strongest ally in the Iraq war, reached a low amid the diplomatic hard ball in the run-up to the conflict. Chirac wanted to move forward in relations with Britain. "Of course, we are not going to build a European defense without Great Britain. That makes no sense when they are the biggest military power, with France near the same level." Chirac said he was at odds with the US view of the world. "The US has a vision of the world which is very unilateralist (Reuters, 5/27/03).

Ronald Hilton - 5/28/03