[A-List] France: ready to renege?

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

France softens approach to UK and US
By Krishna Guha, Political Correspondent
Financial Times: March 12 2003

France sent a conciliatory message to Britain and the US on Tuesday, hinting
that it might still be possible to bridge the gap between the two camps in
the Security Council over how to deal with Iraq.

François Rivasseau, spokesman for the French foreign ministry, said
Britain's willingness to negotiate on the amended second UN resolution on
Iraq's disarmament obligations was "a new development" and could be
"significant".

In what appears to be an overture to the UK and US, Mr Rivasseau said: "We
have indicated that we are open to dialogue."

However, he added France would not breach its "red lines". He said: "We want
no ultimatum. We want no elements of automaticity. And we have said we want
what the inspectors say to be taken into account." His comments unleashed
speculation that France was preparing to switch tack, from insisting on its
willingness to veto the second resolution to making at least a public effort
to find a form of words that could reunite the Security Council around a
second resolution.

The French government believes Tony Blair is desperate to secure a
resolution to contain the rebellion within his Labour party, and could be
amenable to a compromise.

Mr Blair's spokesman said he was not aware of any new overture from the
French. He said Downing Street had assumed, following an interview given by
President Chirac on Monday, that France was set on exercising its veto.

But he said: "There is a lot of high diplomacy going on. No one has written
anyone off."

Britain believes President Chirac blundered when he told the interviewer
that France would veto a second resolution "whatever the circumstances". A
UK foreign office official said Britain had all but given up on France in
recent days, and concentrated all its efforts on the undecided "middle
ground" in the Security Council.

Mr Straw has not spoken to Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign
minister, since their confrontation at the UN on Friday. The official said
the French might have finally realised "they have painted themselves into a
corner" and be looking for a way out.

But he said it was also possible that President Chirac wanted to show he had
made efforts to compromise before casting his veto.

He acknowledged there could potentially be a way of bridging the gap between
Britain's demand for a final deadline and France's call for a plan with a
series of deadlines. In theory at least, the crucial demands could be
front-loaded with a tight deadline. Britain accepts that if these were met,
there would have to be a further plan to deal with other unresolved issues.

But Britain will insist on setting strict deadlines and does not want
decisions on whether Iraq has complied or not to be subject to further
protracted discussion in the Security Council.