Change of heart
Members of the Iraqi Governing Council made an official visit to France last weekend. Will this be enough to thaw relations between the two countries,
asks Laila Hafez in Paris
When it was announced a week ago that a delegation from the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) would shortly be arriving in Paris, the French government promptly declared that it had no intention of overlooking the $3 billion Iraqi debt owed to it.
French officials cited a variety of reasons for its announcement -- that France is the head of the Paris Club, and therefore does not have the right to cancel Iraqi debts independently; that the Paris Club only deals with sovereign states, which does not currently apply to the IGC; and that Washington, in an attempt to exercise pressure on those countries that did not participate in the US-led war on Iraq, has excluded France, along with Germany, Russia and Canada, from contracts awarded for the rebuilding of Iraq.
However, by the time the IGC delegation arrived in Paris on Sunday evening circumstances had altered dramatically, with the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein arrested in Tikrit, and United States President George W Bush achieving the victory he had been awaiting for some time. Consequently, the delegation was given an unexpectedly positive reception in Paris, and the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin declared that Iraqi debts would be reduced in 2004 within the framework of the Paris Club.
The 10-member delegation included council President Abdel-Aziz Al-Hakim, three Council members, former IGC President Jalal Talbani, Samir Shakir Al-Sumaidi and Yunadam Youssef Qana, Foreign Minister Hushiar Zaibari, Planning Minister Mahdi Hafez and four other high- ranking figures.
The programme of the visit provided for extensive meetings with the French foreign minister on Monday morning, then with the heads of the French Senate and the National Assembly. In the evening, the delegation met with President Jacques Chirac, and later still with representatives of the French business community.
In response to questions about whether Paris recognises the Iraqi Governing Council, government spokesmen have consistently reiterated the claim that France does not recognise regimes but states. However, in private the French have not hesitated to describe the council as an illegitimate entity, hand-picked by Washington, which reserves the right to revise any decisions the IGC makes.
Yet, the manner in which France received the council members, and the fact that it signed an agreement concerning Iraqi debts, would suggest that the French government considers that it is dealing with the legitimate representatives of a sovereign country. President Chirac welcomed the delegation on the stairs of the Elysée Palace, and the head of the council attended a press conference with de Villepin, who declared that Hussein's arrest by US forces in Iraq offered an opportunity that must not be missed.
However, de Villepin also stressed the necessity of economic and monetary transparency in Iraq, a problem affecting states that have promised to donate funds to Iraq as much as those that did not do so during the Madrid Conference on 23 and 24 October. De Villepin made clear France's willingness to extend a helping hand to Iraq, providing funds and collaborating in humanitarian, cultural and educational fields, and he promised to help open a school to train Iraqi police officers.
At the same time, the French foreign minister stressed the date for setting up a temporary parliament and government in Iraq of 30 June 2004, according to the 15 November agreement. This agreement, he added, was the driving force behind developments in the right direction, and it is on 30 June that the French chargé d'affaires in Iraq will submit his accreditation to the new government as prospective French ambassador to the country.
For his part, Al-Hakim took advantage of France's understanding and flexibility to request the return of Iraqi funds frozen in France. These funds belonged to the former regime and to the Iranian Mujahedin Khalq organisation, members of which were once Iranian political refugees in Iraq and have now relocated to France. Al-Hakim also asked the French government to help draft a new constitution and laws for the country, a request that proved particularly welcome to the French.
Perhaps the most significant observation to be made about the visit is that France, one of the closest allies of the former Iraqi regime, did not try to undermine the former Iraqi opposition members, who in turn seemed to have risen above the fact that the French were once supporters of Hussein.
This is a consequence of mutual interests: France needs the coucil's support in order to play an economic and political role in the Iraqi state to come, while the council needs France's support in order not to have to confront Washington single-handedly. The French might, moreover, try to use their position with the council to try to gain influence with the US.
