French anger at US policy on Israel

Jon Henley in Paris and Matthew Engel in Washington
Thursday February 7, 2002
The Guardian

The gulf between the US and Europe over Washington's foreign policy widened yesterday when France's foreign minister delivered an outspoken attack on America's support for Israel.
In the hardest-hitting European assault yet on Washington's world view, Hubert Védrine said US support for the hardline Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was "mistaken" and "dangerously simplistic".
Mr Védrine said Europeans were "unanimous in not supporting the Middle East policy of the White House" and thought it was a "mistake to blindly accept the policy of pure repression" conducted by Mr Sharon.

President George Bush, who is to receive Mr Sharon in Washington today, has said it is up to the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, to do "a better job" to end what he calls the terror being inflicted on Israel.

Mr Védrine said France was instead backing a proposal with its EU allies for a formal Israeli acknowledgement of the need for a Palestinian state and elections in the Palestinian territories that would give the winner a mandate to negotiate peace.

The minister's attack comes amid a chorus of dismay in Europe at Mr Bush's state of the union speech last week in which he named Iran, Iraq and North Korea as sponsors of terrorism in an "axis of evil".

Mr Védrine said that Europeans "are friends of the United States and will remain so". But, he added: "We are threatened today by a new simplism which consists in reducing everything to the war on terrorism. We cannot accept that idea. You have got to tackle the root causes, the situations, poverty, injustice."

He said US rhetoric was confirmation that the Bush administration approached foreign policy "unilaterally, without consulting anyone, based on their interpretation and on their interests".

The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has conceded that there was a possible link between Iran and the Palestinian Authority in the form of a shipload of weapons intercepted by Israel last month in the Red sea.

But EU officials say they will resist any US attempt to make an enemy of Iran in the widening war on terrorism. Europe believes trade, cooperation and support for the reform process and opposition moderates is the best way forward for Iran.

Diplomats said that while the EU broadly shared US concerns about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and about its support for anti-Israel groups including Hizbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it remains dubious about Washington's charges that Iran exports global terror or has links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Yesterday the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, accused Tehran of trying to destabilise the new Afghan government and of "unhelpful activities" in the area.

"We can demonstrate to them that it is not in their interest to destabilise the government that they helped to create," he said. But he was convinced talks with Iranian leaders were still possible.