US President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were to hold talks yesterday focusing on their common hard line on Iran, cooperation on Afghanistan and France’s outreach to Syria.
Bush, on a legacy-shaping farewell trip to Europe, and Sarkozy were to meet at the Elysee Palace as a top European envoy offered Tehran’s defiant leaders a new incentives package to freeze their suspect nuclear drive.
US officials say they hope Sarkozy will offer reassurances on his newly warm ties with Damascus, notably his decision to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend France’s “Bastille Day” national day celebrations next month.
PHOTO: EPA
The face-to-face talks came after Sarkozy, whose pro-US stance got him the nickname “Sarkozy l’Americain,” hosted Bush for a formal dinner at the Elysee, welcoming him with a military fanfare and a warm handshake.
But US media eager for a glimpse of the French leader’s new wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, went home disappointed after the model-turned-singer welcomed US First Lady Laura Bush through a side entrance, away from the media spotlight.
The US president was also to visit a US cemetery and memorial for World War I and World War II combatants before touring the fort at Mont Valerien, west of Paris, where more than 1,000 French resistance fighters were executed by German troops.
On Friday, about 1,000 protesters took to the streets in the heart of Paris at the urging of the French extreme-left, chanting “Bush Go Home!” or “Bush murderer, Sarko accomplice!”
Bush and Sarkozy, who broadly agree that Franco-US tensions over Iraq are a thing of the past, were to reinforce their cooperation as Paris prepares to take over the EU presidency next month.
Bush called for transatlantic unity on issues like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, climate change and Middle East peace on Friday in the keynote speech of his final trip to Europe before his successor takes over in January.
The meeting came as Iran preemptively declared that it would reject any nuclear deal offered by world powers if the plan included a demand to freeze uranium enrichment, which can be a key step towards getting nuclear weapons.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presented Iran yesterday with a modified package of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment.
Iran’s government spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, immediately said Tehran would not accept the package if its Iran won’t accept the package if it asks Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Solana’s spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, said Solana presented the package to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Before leaving for Tehran on Friday, Solana said the plan — which he was presenting on behalf of the US, Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China — “aims to address Iran’s essential interests.”
“I am traveling to Tehran to present a generous and comprehensive offer. With this offer, the EU and the six countries I represent show their desire to develop a constructive and cooperative relationship with Iran in the nuclear field and in many other areas,” Solana said in a statement.
He added that the package “is designed to support Iran in developing a modern nuclear energy program.”
Asked if Iran will agree to stop sensitive nuclear work, Elham said Iran would never do so.
“If suspension is included in the package, it won’t be considered at all,” IRNA quoted Gholam Hossein Elham as saying yesterday. “The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is clear.”
“Preconditions can’t be raised for any halt or suspension,” he said.
Solana met Mottaki yesterday morning and was expected to meet Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili later in the day.
Elham said there was no plan for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to meet Solana.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not