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| Axis of Evil |
| Frenchies in back channel negotiations with Sammy... |
| 2002-11-03 |
| France took centre stage in the Iraq crisis amid reports it had been secretly negotiating with the regime for reform from within. Paris "categorically" denied the report by the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that a French envoy had been shuttling to Baghdad for months in a bid to remove any pretext for US-led military action to oust Saddam Hussein. "No French envoy tasked with such a mission to Saddam Hussein has gone to Iraq," the foreign ministry said Saturday. "Non, non! Would La Belle France go behind your back?" The envoy "has been regularly visiting Iraq for some time" to lobby for a change of "internal and foreign" policies and consequently avert US military action against Saddam's regime, the paper said, quoting "authorized French sources." If they were "authorized," why'd they deny it? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |