French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner publicly apologized yesterday "for having interfered in Iraqi affairs" for suggesting that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki stand down.
"If the prime minister wants me to excuse myself for having interfered in Iraqi affairs in such a direct way, then I do so willingly," he said on French radio station RTL.
Maliki on Sunday demanded an official apology from Paris after Kouchner indicated, in the online edition of Newsweek that the Shiite prime minister had to go.
"I just had [US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] on the phone 10 or 15 minutes ago, and I told her, `Listen, he's got to be replaced,'" Kouchner was quoted as telling Newsweek.
"Many people believe the prime minister ought to be changed. I don't know if that will go through, though, because it seems [US] President [George W.] Bush is attached to Mr Maliki. But the government is not functioning," he was quoted as saying.
Maliki angrily demanded an apology from France, saying: "In the past you backed the former [Iraqi president Saddam Hussein'] regime. Today we were happy with you and then you decided to support the former regime's loyalists."
Speaking yesterday, Kouchner said: "I believe that he [Maliki] did not understand, or that I did not stress enough that these had been remarks that I had heard from my Iraqi interlocuteurs."
While expressing his apologies, Kouchner added: "I am not alone in making some criticism in the face of a hotbed of tension and daily outrages that anger the world."
"I should have said, once again, and I repeat it, that these were remarks held by my interlocuteurs that I had just come from hearing. If they had been misinterpreted, I am sorry," he said.
In an op-ed article yesterday in the International Herald Tribune, Kouchner said France was ready to act as a mediator in Iraq, arguing that there could only be a political solution, not a military one.
He also appealed for the UN and Iraq's neighbors to take a more active role.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS