France’s neutrality makes it a bridge to the Muslim world
April 21, 2003 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Paris - Over the last few months, Franco-American relations have, to put it mildly, ebbed. Once negotiations over Iraqi arms inspections at the United Nations Security Council soured, the media frenzy kicked in and, soon after, no self-respecting American would wash down his freedom fries with a glass of his favorite Bordeaux.
With the war over, why would the U.S. want to listen to a stereotypical French whine for a central postwar role for the U.N. instead of leaving them to their traditional mop-up role?
In a phrase: credibility and a bridge to the Muslim world.
Many Muslims worldwide had less-than-favorable reactions to Uncle Sam’s takeover of Uncle Saddam’s country. U.S.-led activity in Iraq violently stirred anti-American sentiment in the region, with many seeing it as a direct attack on Islam as a whole.
As a result, thousands of typically U.S.-friendly Egyptians and hundreds of Algerians walked up to their Iraqi embassies during the war to volunteer in the fight against what they see as America’s “new colonialism.” In an early March trip to Algeria, however, French President Jacques Chirac was hailed like a king.
“If there is one (Osama) bin Laden now, there will be 100 bin Ladens afterward,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned at the height of April’s fighting. This echoed Chirac’s February theory that the war would lead to an outbreak of “little bin Ladens” among those who saw the U.S. as an unjust aggressor.
The acceptance of the government setup in postwar Iraq will likely have a great effect on whether these micro-terrorists appear.
Twist of fate
Part of what France showed with its U.N. veto threat was a continued sensibility to Muslim opinion. In what could be seen as a strange twist of diplomatic fate, France might now function as a buffer between the U.S. and the Islamic world.
Along with strong historical links, France has continually cultivated a “cultural liaison” role to North Africa and the Middle East.
While Germany devotes much of its liaison skills toward eastern Europe (German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke of “overcoming the division of the European continent into East and West” at last week’s European Union summit), France functions in a similar role between the European Union and southern Mediterranean countries.
France has also assumed a mediator’s role in the informal “five-plus-five” dialogues that bring foreign ministers from Mediterranean-bordering European countries and the Maghreb - those nations stretched across the northern shores of Africa - together to discuss political and economic issues.
Journalist Nathalie Gillet covers northern Africa for the political and economic weekly magazine Marches Tropicaux. Gillet, who speaks Arabic and has lived in Syria for nine months and Libya for six, says there is a deep and growing anti-American sentiment due to U.S.-led actions in Iraq.
“An American in the Maghreb has every reason to feel uneasy,” Gillet said, recounting a recent visit to Morocco. “Even if there’s no direct sympathy for the Iraqi regime, what I hear on the streets is ‘Iraqis are Arabs like us.’ “
Extremist springboard
Gillet describes what she calls an “emotional community” among Arabs who feel “out of phase” with their own governments. This feeling often leaves Muslims gravitating closer to their religion than their government, which can sometimes function as a springboard toward extremism.
“Though they may feel a separation between themselves and their own government, the French stance on Iraq has left them feeling less cut off from the world,” she explains.
“French work at the U.N. has been very well appreciated among the Arab people,” says Gillet, citing the similarities between French and Arab attempts to find a peaceful solution to the Iraqi conflict.
France, for example, tends to side more closely with the Palestinians than with Israel. Compared with the U.S. position, seen as pro-Israeli, the French stance could act as a counterbalance that could keep Yasser Arafat from walking away from the table like he did at Camp David in 2000.
Guillaume Parmentier, director of the French Center on the United States and the author of “Reconcilable Differences: U.S.-French Relations in the New Era,” uses the French and U.S. views on the Middle East conflict to illustrate how, as with Iraq, the two countries’ different views have come from the shared goal of stability in the region.
“Out of a similar desire to help the downtrodden, (France and the United States) end up having opposite positions. We can agree on items, but we can’t agree on a priority.”
“The French feel that throwing too much support toward Israel or attacking an Arab people or country would lead to mammoth instability in the region,” says Parmentier. A March 19 televised statement from Iraqi leaders citing Iraq’s struggle against “American, English and Zionist aggressors” seemed to reinforce this idea.
France’s threatened veto at the U.N. Security Council stemmed from this same feeling: “France always felt that handling Iraq without looking at the larger view of the Arab world was wrong,” said Parmentier.
‘Keep dialogue flowing’
Another example of this difference in approach can be seen in recent dealings with Syria. While President Bush threatened sanctions from Washington, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin went to Damascus last weekend as a part of a whirlwind trip to the Middle East to “keep dialogue flowing” with Iraq’s neighbors.
Differences between the French and American stances on the war in Iraq are due in no small part to strong and long-standing French ties with Muslim-dominated Africa and the Middle East.
A delicate balance
With a Muslim population of more than 4 million at home, France also is sensitive to the possibility that it faces a threat from both outside the country as well as within its borders. It must take into account that a delicate internal social balance could be thrown off by what could be seen as a betrayal of its connection with the Muslim world.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) summarized European concerns in a speech at Georgetown University on Jan. 23:
“If anything, our trans-Atlantic partners have a greater interest than we do in an economic and political transformation in the greater Middle East. They are closer to the front lines. More heavily dependent on oil imports. Prime magnets for immigrants seeking jobs. Easier to reach with missiles and just as vulnerable to terrorism.”
Carefully managed, the postwar reconstruction of Iraq could begin healing what journalist Gillet terms the “deep wound” the U.S. has inflicted on the Arab world. As much as the U.S. might not want to admit it, France could play a vital role in repairing this heavily damaged relationship.
Joe Ray is a freelance journalist in Paris. He has written previously for the Journal Sentinel and other major U.S. newspapers. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
