15 - 21 November 2001
Issue No.560
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560 |
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In on the kill
France is stepping up its intelligence support for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan while wanting to keep out of the fighting, writes David Tresilian from Paris
French President Jacques Chirac, on his second visit to Washington since the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, last week announced that 2,000 French troops were "currently engaged in military operations" in support of the American-led campaign against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
Jacques Chirac
However, he also stressed "the political necessity to put in place a modern state in Afghanistan, and the urgent need for humanitarian aid to the refugees and to all the Afghan people." He added that there was a need to address "crises which feed terrorism everywhere in the world, particularly crises in the Middle East. Military action is indispensable [in ending terrorism], but it is not the only form of action," he said.
Indicating continuing French support for the American-led campaign, Chirac made the announcements during a press conference held at the White House with US President George Bush on 6 November. No details were given on the location or activities of the French troops, but reports in the French press have indicated that they are probably engaged in support operations, without participating directly in actions carried out in the field.
Chirac said later in the day that new American requests for French support had also been received, in addition to the 2,000 French troops already committed. These were being studied, he said, adding, "We are ready to send special forces [in support of the American-led campaign], on the condition that we know what the nature of their mission will be and we are involved in planning any such mission."
The remainder of the French president's visit was spent in New York at the headquarters of the United Nations, where he met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and with Lakhdar Brahimi, UN special representative in Afghanistan, in order to discuss a possible French role in arrangements for a post- Taliban government in the country.
"It is essential that Afghanistan should have a regime other than the Taliban, being a representative government, a government that would have good relations with all the neighbouring countries and would little by little introduce democracy to the country," he said.
Following the beginning of the US-led bombing of Afghanistan more than a month ago, France has offered logistical and intelligence support to the American military, without being directly involved in actions carried out in the field. According to French press reports, three French naval vessels are currently operating in the Gulf, supplying intelligence to US forces.
On 25 October, Chirac announced that France had recently reinforced its military and intelligence capabilities in the Gulf, in order to "contribute in an effective manner to the operations being carried out in Afghanistan to eradicate the terrorist networks and their supporters."
These intelligence capabilities consist of a C160 Gabriel electronic spy plane and two Mirage IVP reconnaissance planes, which have been carrying out intelligence missions in support of US forces and are based in the Gulf. France also has three Mirage F1CR spy planes and six Mirage 2000 fighters based at Al-Kharg in Saudi Arabia, though these have not been deployed in compliance with Saudi government wishes that the base not be involved in the military campaign in Afghanistan.
The nearest French military base in the region is in Djibouti, 5,000 kilometres from Afghanistan.
Chirac's visit to Washington came against a background of wavering French public support for the American-led campaign against the Taliban and a desire on the part of the French government to be seen to be playing a more active international role.
In particular, Chirac's announcements, calculated to enhance his international profile in advance of French presidential elections next year, may further strain relations with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose government contains left-wing elements opposed to French support for the American-led campaign.
Following the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, Chirac gave an interview in which he indicated that France was ready to support retaliatory actions carried out by the United States without reservation, in contrast to the French government's official position that the country was ready to offer political support but reserved the right to evaluate possible military operations.
Jospin, who leads a coalition left-wing government made up of Socialists and Greens and enjoys Communist support, has said that any request for direct French involvement in the American-led campaign would be referred to the French parliament for "consultation" prior to actions taking place, and that the parliament would be "regularly kept informed of any eventual operations."
However, Robert Hue, French Communist Party candidate for next year's presidential elections, has spoken of his "concern over the form taken by the American intervention in Afghanistan," and Green Party MP Noel Mamère has spoken of "the act of war carried out on the Afghan people by the United States." This position is shared by other Green Party leaders. Both Greens and Communists have asked that the parliament be not only kept informed of French involvement in the American-led campaign, but that any increased involvement should be submitted to a formal vote.
Meanwhile, 50 Arab intellectuals resident in France on 25 October signed a petition calling on the United States, and the West in general, to revise its "policy of diktat to the third world, which does not take into account other peoples' interests or ambitions." On 30 October, following a demonstration in Paris against the American-led operations in Afghanistan, 113 French intellectuals signed a petition against "this war which is not our war, in which each bomb dropped will create a new Bin Laden."
Explaining the petition in an interview with the French press, historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet, well known for his opposition to the French colonial war in Algeria in the 1950s, said that the signatories had wanted to express their unease, shared, he believed, by a significant proportion of the French population, at "the American habit of bombing without paying much attention to what's underneath... at the psychological will to give to the planet in general the impression of unlimited American power."
However, reports in the press have also indicated that the French government has been stung by allegations that France has been taking a backseat in diplomatic efforts to create a post- Taliban government in Afghanistan and in response to the American-led campaign. An article that appeared in the US newspaper The International Herald Tribune, which is published in Paris, just before Chirac's Washington visit said that France had shown itself to be a "third-rate military and political power," behind the United Kingdom and Germany, in its response to the crisis.
Chirac's second visit to Washington in as many months, together with his attempts to design a role for France in Afghanistan at the United Nations in New York, may have been, at least in part, in response to such allegations.
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