PRESS CONFERENCE BY DEFENcE MINISTER OF FRANCE

 

The Government of France and Secretary-General Kofi Annan held very similar analyses of peacekeeping needs around the world, French Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

“Changes or improvements of the work that can be done by United Nations forces” were a focus of the broad review of missions she had conducted with Mr. Annan and Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

Their discussions, she said, focused in particular on the missions in which France played a central role, such as those in Lebanon, Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the situations of Darfur and Chad.

In response to questions concerning Lebanon, Ms. Alliot-Marie said that the reception of French troops by the Lebanese had been very positive since, due to the close links between the two countries, they had been heavily involved in humanitarian assistance soon after the beginning of the recent hostilities and now were engaged in crucial reconstruction such as the installation of bridges.

France was also involved in the clearing of unexploded cluster bombs, but, as it was an enormous problem, the help of other parties was needed, she said.

Asked whether French forces would use their ground-to-air missiles to stop Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, she replied that such missiles were strictly for defensive purposes, but the continuance of such overflights was increasingly dangerous as “they could be seen as hostile by coalition forces”.  The flights also weakened the cessation of hostilities as they could be used as a pretext for other violations.  For all those reasons they must stop, she said.

Asked when her country would withdraw its troops from Côte d’Ivoire, she said it would be happy to do so but, as the French Licorne Operation was there to support United Nations contingents, an early withdrawal would risk the whole mission and fighting might start again, creating a tragedy for the whole subcontinent.

Taking up the European military support to elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in response to another question, she said that it had been envisioned as an initiative of limited duration that had been confronted with the delay in the election from June to the end of July.  The difficulties posed by the delay were not insurmountable, however, since the process was supposed to end in December, not long after the projected 30 November end date of the support mission.

Finally, asked about international efforts to ensure that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons, Ms. Alliot-Marie said that it was important to try to make negotiations work.  If Iran showed good will in advancing those negotiations, France and its partners were willing to stop the momentum toward Security Council sanctions.

“The problem is, it is sometimes very difficult to talk with Iran,” she said.  “When the actions are getting close, there is a diplomatic step forward by Iran and then, on the following day or three days later, when we think we are going to get into the talks, they step back and they stiffen.”  There must be some kind of forward movement for sanctions to be averted, she maintained.

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For information media • not an official record