[Ynet] Paper claims La Belle France was 'hours' before launching aerial attack against Syria when Hollande received telephone call from Obama informing him US was backing down from joint attack plan in favor of congressional supportLa Belle France was set to launch an aerial attack in Syria in response to the chemical attack on a Damascus suburb until US President Barack Obama
I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go...
called his French counterpart and requested he put off the attack, British newspaper The Independent reported.
According to the report, which quotes the French newspaper Nouvel Observateur, French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist...
received a phone call from US President Barack Obama on August 31, "hours" before the attack was set to be launched.
According to The Independent, the report in Nouvel Observateur claimed Obama placed a phone call to the French leader in which he informed a "stunned" Hollande that despite a planned US-French strike against Syira, Obama would in fact seek congressional support of an attack, thus effectively lifting the threat despite the two nation's agreement.
The report claimed that at the time of Obama's call, Rafale aircraft were prepared for take-off and official statements were already prepared in anticipation of the attack,
"Everything made us think that D-Day had arrived," a French official is quoted in Nouvel Observateur as saying, adding that the "incredible misunderstanding lasted until the end of the afternoon," at around 6 pm Saturday when Obama phoned Hollande. According to The Independent, the strikes was suppose to begin at 3 am that night, and were expected to target rocket batteries as well as the command centers of the division responsible for Syria's chemical arms.
At the time of the call, Hollande was expecting to give the attack the greenlight. His inclination was based on an agreement with the US that the two nations would launch a joint military intervention operation against Syria.
However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
despite the agreement between La Belle France and the US, Obama ended up changing his mind after allegedly speaking with Denis McDonough, his chief of staff, The Independent reported.
When asked for a response by The Independent on the Nouvel Observateur report, the French Defense Ministry kept mum. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
the paper quoted a retired military official as interpreting the incident as a slight to La Belle France's pride. "President B.O.'s U-turn reflects a great contempt by the United States for La Belle France," General Vincent Desportes is quoted as telling the French channel Le Monde in the beginning of September.