There was no rancor, but no regret either.
When President Jacques Chirac stood before his ambassadorial corps on Friday for his annual state of the world speech, he omitted all criticism of the US-led war in Iraq and the failure of the US to secure the peace there.
In fact, there was nothing in Chirac's speech to suggest that France had ever opposed the US decision to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein by force.
In his first major foreign policy address since the Iraq war, he chose only to underscore the need for Iraqis to determine their own future under the authority of the UN.
"The only realistic option is to transfer authority and sovereignty to the Iraqis themselves," Chirac said. "This must be rapidly implemented as part of a process to which only the the UN is in a position to give legitimacy, with the support of the countries in the region."
He added that once such a framework was established, "the international community will be able to provide effective and full support for the reconstruction of the country in a manner which must be worked out with the Iraqis themselves."
Without criticizing the US, Chirac defended the French position of containing Iraq by UN-sponsored weapons inspections as the most "effective and legitimate instrument of collective action."
Chirac, who is scheduled to meet with US President George W. Bush in New York in late September, is said by aides to be looking for ways to restore America's confidence in France after its refusal to join the US action.
Like Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, Chirac sees the world as a place with multiple centers of power. He has said that this "multipolar" world needs to operate as a global power, limiting in a firm but friendly manner US interests and influence.
On Friday, Chirac adopted a more modulated tone. He refrained from calling for limits on US power, but he defended the decision by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg -- NATO countries that opposed the war -- to launch a joint security and defense initiative last April aimed at making Europe's defense policy more coherent and more independent of that of the US.
That initiative was criticized by other NATO countries as unnecessary and exclusionary, and was seen by the US as a direct challenge to it and to its allies who supported the war.
In his speech, Chirac emphasized the importance of the European-US relationship, saying: "Let there be, in this respect, no misunderstanding. Trans-Atlantic ties and the partnership between Europe and the US, our primary ally, constitute a crucial element of world security."
But he added, "The idea is to give Europe credibility," which requires "enhanced military capabilities" and the forging by Europe of new alliances with "other major poles in the world," including China, India, Japan, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
On the development of weapons of mass destruction, Chirac criticized those countries that he said "are failing to live up to their international commitments."
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
IMPASSE: US President Donald Trump pressed to end the filibuster in a sign that he is unlikely to compromise despite Democrat offers for a delayed healthcare vote The US government shutdown stretched into its 40th day yesterday even as senators stayed in Washington for a grueling weekend session hoping to find an end to the funding fight that has disrupted flights nationwide, threatened food assistance for millions of Americans and left federal workers without pay. The US Senate has so far shown few signs of progress over a weekend that could be crucial for the shutdown fight. Republican leaders are hoping to hold votes on a new package of bills that would reopen the government into January while also approving full-year funding for several parts of government, but
TOWERING FIGURE: To Republicans she was emblematic of the excesses of the liberal elite, but lawmakers admired her ability to corral her caucus through difficult votes Nancy Pelosi, a towering figure in US politics, a leading foe of US President Donald Trump and the first woman to serve as US House of Representatives speaker, on Thursday announced that she would step down at the next election. Admired as a master strategist with a no-nonsense leadership style that delivered for her party, the 85-year-old Democrat shepherded historic legislation through the US Congress as she navigated a bitter partisan divide. In later years, she was a fierce adversary of Trump, twice leading his impeachment and stunning Washington in 2020 when she ripped up a copy of his speech to the
RSS