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Photo byScott Quintard UCLA
Photo
French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte at Macgowan Hall
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French diplomat urges greater cooperation
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
Despite frosty Franco-American relations over the Iraq war and
the pull-out of Spanish troops from Iraq, French Ambassador to the
United States Jean-David Levitte urged Europe and America to stand
together to fight terrorism because the stakes — future relations
between the Muslim world and the West — are too high to lose.
“We all suffer from terrorism,” said the ambassador.
“We are all determined to fight against this disease. We simply
consider that to defeat terrorism will take a complex and comprehensive
strategy,” he explained of France’s perspective. Essential
to that plan, he said, are excellent cooperation among nations,
a policy that addresses the roots of terrorism “and, only
as the last resort, the use of military force.”
Levitte came to campus April 14 to advocate warmer relations between
France and the United States after a “diplomatic hurricane”
last year blew apart largely amicable, bilateral ties dating back
to the Revolutionary War. At UCLA — with the exception of
a few tense moments when a man in the audience disrupted Levitte’s
talk to criticize French military presence in Haiti — there
was little evidence of the bad blood that gave rise last year to
anti-French slurs and calls for “freedom fries.”
Instead, cordial applause greeted Levitte, who appeared at the
Little Theater at Macgowan Hall before an audience of more than
200 faculty, students, staff and members of the diplomatic corps
based in Los Angeles. His talk, “Transatlantic Relations:
New Challenges, New Opportunities,” was cosponsored by the
School of Public Policy and Social Research, the Center for Globalization
and Policy Research, the Center for Civil Society and the French
Consulate General in Los Angeles.
“The French want to help with Iraq, but [we] would like
a better dialogue,” Levitte said. While the French saw the
Iraq war as unnecessary and did not believe Saddam Hussein was an
imminent threat linked to Al Qaeda, France publicly applauded the
fall of the dictator at the hands of coalition troops.
And France is still hopeful that the United States will follow
an Afghan model in helping Iraq rebuild its own government, Levitte
said. In Afghanistan, the United Nations played a key role in organizing
a constitutional convention that many opposing factions attended.
Once the Afghans agreed upon a constitution and a legitimate government
was formed, the UN organized a peacekeeping operation there. Today,
French troops are still dispersed along Afghanistan’s border
with Pakistan, fighting alongside American soldiers against the
Taliban and Al Qaeda.
“It’s a perfect example of good cooperation among
nations,” Levitte noted.
“Why couldn’t the Afghan model be transferred into
the Iraqi model? That was our proposal. It’s more difficult
to do it now, but it’s not too late,” he said.
With a June 30 election set for Iraq, France has offered to help
set up an international conference to decide how the world’s
nations can best support a constitutional process for a new Iraqi
government. In addition, France has also offered to train and equip
a new kind of Iraqi military police to complement the country’s
existing security forces, Levitte said.
In his view of what transpired last year, Levitte said, “The
French people were massively against the war and against the leadership
of the [U.S.] president. But the French were not against the American
people.”
On June 6, to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day, President Bush
and French President Jacques Chirac plan to visit the beaches of
Normandy together. On that day, said Levitte, “You will hear
only words of deep gratitude from the French people to the American
people. We are true friends.”
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