The Truth Behind the French Opposition to America

[Gość: .]

"Where were the French during the last decade of this
unbelievable embargo imposed on the Iraqi people? What
did they do to alleviate the pains of the civilians? .."

By Hichem Karoui

PARIS (PC) - Naively, some people believe that if the
French government was so keen on opposing the American
plans concerning Iraq, it was out of some humanitarian
principles, (i.e. the risk that innocent people get
blindly shot or bombed, etc) as if the French have the
"monopoly of the heart", to use a well known expression
of former President Giscard dEstain. Or better: As if
they want to outbid over and over with the Iraqis
themselves- who as an opposition force do not hide that
they expect to defeat Saddam on the battle field,
thanks to the American help.


But the reality is different and much less
"humanitarian" than candid people are prone to believe.
What happened in the Security Council and in the
diplomatic wings was more dictated by the "RAISON
DETAT" than by an exclusive and astonishing attachment
of the French to the survival of the Iraqi regime, and
the much understandable concern for the lives of
innocent folks.


Where were the French during the last decade of this
unbelievable embargo imposed on the Iraqi people? What
did they do to alleviate the pains of the civilians?
Were they not one of the states that imposed the
punitions on the people of Iraq, in full knowledge that
this people could not be held responsible for the acts
of its government? Could they not veto any
recommendation of the Security Council that they view
as not conforming with the UN chart or merely to their
own conception of the international ethic? In fact, I
do not know who is the more cynical: those who propose
to put an end immediately to the plight of the Iraqis
by means of war, or those who propose to prolong the
torture by means of unlimited inspections and palavers?

When you look at both stances (the British-American and
the French), you can only notice that all of them are
competing in zeal, with still the same effects on the
Iraqi people. Embargo or war, does it really matter any
more for the Iraqis? Whats the difference? In both
cases, they are confronted with unnatural death,
penury, poverty, and all the misery of what they have
come to perceive now as an international conspiracy, at
the heart of which, there are not only the main
occidental powers, but also Israel. It goes without
saying that the latter remains the unique beneficiary
in the region of the probable dismantlement of the
much-feared Iraqi regime. Even a child would tell you
nowadays that Israel is overstuffed with all kinds of
armaments, and still rampaging and putting the
neighborhood in blood and flames, and nobody in the
West cares.

At the same time, the Iraqis are told: some "mighty"
nations can help you (i.e. France and Russia!). Can you
believe that Mr. Chirac and Mr. Putin are unable to
sleep because they have the Iraqi problem on the mind?
The Iraqi problem is actually the latest of Putins
troubles, despite the $40 billions "oil for safety"
deal, between Baghdad and Moscow. As to France, the
story is much less "romantic" than the naive think.

To understand what is going on behind the curtains,
here are some clues:


The sophisticated business network the French have
succeeded to settling in Iraq was not born in the
aftermath of the Gulf war, but many years before it. At
the origin, the network concerned oil industry, trade,
and armaments at once. It seems that as early as 1975,
in an interview with a Lebanese journalist, Saddam
called his dealings with France "the first concrete
step toward the production of the Arab atomic weapon".

In September of the same year, Saddam flied into Paris
for a reception offered by Prime Minister Jacques
Chirac. It was not long before France, which saw
billions of francs worth of business just over the
horizon, began selling Iraq missiles, helicopters,
defense electronics, and ultimately the materials and
technology needed to construct a nuclear reactor. Some
French journalists used to joke about the Iraqi reactor
referring to it as "OChirac". After Mr. Chirac approved
the Osirak deal and other weapons transactions for
Baghdad, he became known in certain French business
circles as "Mr. Iraq".


Thus, it was not a coincidence that in the aftermath of
Desert storm, the first negotiations about oil that
have been recorded gathered in May 17, 1992, Hussein
Kamel - Saddams son in law and then Minister of
industry and oil- and an adviser of Mr. Jacques Chirac
for the Middle East, whose identity remained obscure.
The first secretary of the Iraqi embassy in Paris had
contacted the latter just a week after the beginning of
the cease-fire: the deal was already in the making. In
parallel to the talks that started between Paris and
Baghdad about oil industry, President Mitterand was the
first Western leader to launch in 1992, during a visit
to Jordan and Israel, the idea of a rail road linking
Haifa to Baghdad, the cost of which was evaluated at
about $ 6 billion.


At the time, it was a weird idea, although the project
was actually as old as the first kingdom of Iraq,
headed by Faisal Ibn al Hussein. But it seems that
Mitterand was aiming at two goals: 1- To acquire more
an important role for his country in the Middle East
future, as the USA was almost monopolizing the peace
process. 2- To help creating a strong basis for the
French interests in Iraq, just at the moment he had
given the green light for an important investment in
"Majnun" and "Omar" oil fields in southern Iraq.


The two directors of the French oil company Total-Elf
who traveled to Baghdad and met the Iraqi officials,
were surprised to be offered the privilege of investing
in the field of Majnun island in the region confining
the southern borders with Iran. According to Iraqi
sources, Hussein Kamel was then just carrying out the
orders of his president, who wanted the French to take
the Majnun oil field for two reasons: 1- because the
first step in breaking Baghdad international isolation
consisted in interesting some Great companies; and 2-
thus hampering the outburst of another war in a region
henceforth occupied by Western interests.


Maybe there was also another factor that determined the
Iraqis to deal with the French company, rather than
with its European rivals, like B.P. or Shell. They
actually considered ELF as the successor of ERAP-
another French company that was working in the Iraqi
fields in the end of the sixties and the beginning of
the seventies, before it withdrew with important
compensations, when the oil industry got nationalized
in 1972-73. Moreover, the reputation of ELF as very
influential in the French policies and its connections
with numerous political personalities were not to
displease the Iraqis.


The First French delegation that visited Iraq a little
time after the implementation of the Cease-fire, though
it included some members of Mr. Chiracs R.P.R. -
Rassemblement Pour la Rأ©publique- was actually
representing the trio that had decided of the French
participation to Desert Storm: President Mitterand,
Prime Minister Michel Rocard, and Foreign Minister
Roland Dumas. The ELF-Aquitaine-TOTALs representatives
then offered the Iraqis a present consisting in a stock
of medical equipment, $ 1,5 million worth. Some French
businessmen were interested in helping Iraq with varied
materials, from engines spare pieces to factory tools
and used machines, while some others were already
offering to repair the damages caused by the French air
raids during the war, or the ships forsaken in Shatt
al-Arab and at the up-entrances of the Gulf.


However, the most interesting feature of this period
consisted in an idea proposed by the French, called
"production sharing", which apparently raised amid the
Iraq