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France postpones opening an embassy office
in Kurdistan
14.2.2007 |
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February 14, 2007
Fearing an attack on one of its diplomats, Paris
does not want to take any risks during the election
campaign.
Though planned for the beginning of this year, the
opening of an embassy office in Erbil [Arbil], in
Kurdistan autonomous region (Iraq), will not take
place before a new president has been elected in
France. "There can be no question of taking the
slightest risk with our diplomats' lives during the
election campaign," one of them said.
Though calm reigns in the Kurdish areas, the
constant deterioration in the security situation in
the rest of Iraq has played a major part in this
postponement.
Having been decided on between [French President]
Jacques Chirac and his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal
Talabani, during the latter's visit to Paris in
November, this diplomatic mission marks France's
desire to acknowledge Iraqi Kurdistan's growing
autonomy.
But the head of the mission, who has already been
chosen, would extend his activities to Kirkuk, the
southernmost oil city claimed by the Kurds, and
Mosul to the west, which his colleagues from Baghdad
cannot visit, because of the violence.
Paris refuses to take refuge in Green Zone
Following the death of a member of the DGSE's
[General Directorate of External Security] Action
Service in Basra (in the south) in November, France
has stepped up its watch on diplomatic personnel
still remaining in Baghdad (half a dozen officers,
including a cultural counsellor.) Their movements
are heavily restricted, and this also applies to
diplomatic bags, which now reach the Iraqi capital
only once a month.
Their protection requires a major detachment of
security personnel (members of the National
Gendarmerie's Paratroop Intervention Squadron and 70
Iraqi guards.) On the banks of the Tigris, the
embassy area lies at the heart of the attacks that
shake Baghdad every day. But hitherto Paris has
refused to take refuge within the Green Zone - the
ultra-protected fortress and seat of the US embassy
and the main ministries - as the Iraqi government
has suggested.
"How can our presence be designed in order to
minimize risks and costs?" one security official
asked. The option of a withdrawal to Amman, Jordan,
which has been discussed at recent interministerial
meetings, has been abandoned for the time being.
"More and more European countries - Britain and
Germany, for instance - have recently transferred
their cultural and economic activities to Jordan,"
the official observed.
Back in 2005 the French ambassador at the time,
Bernard Bajolet, received threats from an armed
group linked to Al-Qa'idah. And at the time the
Elysee [French president's office] wondered about
the advisability of sending him back to Iraq. But
such decisions are of great political significance.
"If we reduce our presence in Baghdad or if we open
an office in Erbil, among the Kurds, as is still
planned, it is not in order to make the Iraqi
authorities think that we have already endorsed the
partitioning of their country," Quai d'Orsay [French
Foreign Ministry] sources stressed.
lefigaro fr
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