France's
Cynical Range
from Hollande
at Louvre to
Araud in
Council
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 18
-- The range
of French
governmental
spin about
xenophobia and
Islam has been
displayed in
the last week.
Today in Paris
president
Francois
Hollande
pledged love
to Islamic
art, at an opening
at the Louvre.
Later,
one step down,
foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
condemned the
publication
Charlie Hebdo,
but noted that
there are in
France legal
protections
from freedom
of the press.
But at
the UN last
week, French
ambassador
Gerard Araud
let it all
hang out,
multiple
Security
Council
sources have
told Inner
City Press.
During
a closed-door
discussion
last week of a
draft press
statement on
the killing of
US diplomats
in Benghazi
against a
backdrop of
protests of an
anti-Islam
film, Araud
said, as
paraphrased to
Inner City
Press by four
Council
diplomats,
that he likes
and takes
pride in the
freedom to
denigrate
religion.
One
Security
Council member
told Inner
City Press
this was
"outrageous"
and
"incitement."
Another
told
Inner City
Press, but
then France
should at
least be
consistent in
being for free
speech,
because there
are some kinds
of speech they
do not allow.
A
third
questioned how
much this
reflects the
position of
France under
Francois
Hollande, as
opposed to
Nicolas
Sarkozy, and
how much it is
"Araud, pure
Araud."
It has since
been said to
Inner City
Press, "Araud
is from the
Sarkozy era,
that's why he
said August
was his last
Council
presidency."
We'll see.
We
noted that
France has
positioned
itself with
the opposition
in Libya,
particularly
in Benghazi
then air
dropping
weapons into
the Nafusa
mountains, and
now in Syria,
where even the
founder of MSF
from Paris has
said half of
the fighters
he treated in
Aleppo were,
to put it
diplomatically,
armed
opponents of
such films.
Is
French policy
in this regard
schizophrenic?
Or is it
simply
cynical?
In any
event, Araud's
statement left
a mixture of
surprise and
anger that was
not difficult
to suss out
even days
after that
closed-door
meeting. So, a
late exiting
Council member
asked, why
wasn't it
reported
elsewhere?
Watch this
site.
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