Word: mitterrand
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...land offensive seems certain, however, its timing and intensity are not. Much guessing focuses on late February or early March. French President Francois Mitterrand said flatly last week that the ground attack would begin "in the next few days, if not later, in any case sometime this month." But some Congressmen attending a closed-door briefing by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell last week came away with a different impression. As Democratic Representative John Spratt of South Carolina put it, "I didn't get the sense anybody is pushing for a hurry...
...anti-Saddam coalition seemed to draw closer together last week. French Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement had put himself in an impossible position, managing his government's participation in a war he stubbornly opposed; he resigned and was succeeded by Pierre Joxe, a loyal follower of President Francois Mitterrand. The U.S. won permission to fly B-52 bombers out of bases in Britain and Spain on missions to the gulf. That will allow it to attack the Republican Guards with more of the giant planes than can be accommodated at bases in Saudi Arabia and the Indian Ocean island...
...question of linkage. They would flatly promise Saddam a Middle East conference in exchange for Baghdad's pledge to give up Kuwait. Paris argues that since it has long sought such a parley, it is actually giving Saddam nothing new. Washington sees it differently. Says French President Francois Mitterrand: "I respect Mr. Bush, but I do not feel myself to be in the position of a second-class private obliged to obey his commander in chief...
...diplomatic means. Last week brought a flurry of summits, tete-a-tetes, initiatives and trial balloons, all aimed at averting a war over Kuwait that otherwise looked imminent. The European Community met in Luxembourg. Jordan's King Hussein shuttled around Europe. A former aide to French President Francois Mitterrand tried his luck in Baghdad, and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi convened his own Arab confab. Most significant, after weeks of ; petty dickering over when to get together, the U.S. and Iraq finally agreed to a high-level meeting in Geneva this week, their first since the confrontation erupted...
...some extent, France's push for a separate E.C. effort reflects its penchant for pursuing a separate path, whatever the destination. That tendency was evident in the trip to Baghdad last week of Michel Vauzelle, a former spokesman for Mitterrand and head of the French Parliament's foreign affairs committee. Vauzelle insisted he was not representing Mitterrand, but the President did publicly approve of the mission. In any case, according to an official Iraqi report, Vauzelle's session with Aziz came to nothing...