AFGHANISTAN: France has joined whole-heartedly in the US offensive in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province, putting 22 combat aircraft at the disposal of the US-led coalition and carrying out bombing missions for the first time since the war started five months ago.
Sixteen French Super-Etendards based on the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier and six Mirage 2000Ds from the Manas base in Kirghizistan had fired nine bombs and guided missiles at targets near the remote village of Shahi Kot by late yesterday. Defence ministry sources said the operations continued.
The French participation in "Operation Anaconda" seems paradoxical, in view of recent diplomatic tension over Washington's post-September 11th policies. After the Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Védrine, criticised the Americans' "uniliteralism" and "simplistic attitude", the US Secretary of State said Mr Védrine suffered from "the vapours". Paris took heart from the fact that for the first time, British, German and Spanish officials joined in its criticism.
Paris wants Washington to consult its allies more, and to stop seeing all the world's problems in terms of "terrorism". The Americans must learn there is not a military solution to every crisis, Mr Bernard Valero of the foreign ministry said.
Yet in Afghanistan, France has backed the US totally. "The planes didn't crash into the Tour Montparnasse," Mr Valero explained. "It's a case of legitimate self defence; the Americans call the shots there." President Jacques Chirac noted last week that France was the only country other than the US to operate combat aircraft in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, told France Inter radio yesterday that "al-Qaeda forces are still assembled, in an apparently powerful way, south-east of Kabul". These forces, estimated by the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, to number several hundred, "threaten the equilibrium we are trying to restore in Afghanistan", Mr Jospin said. "So we are taking part in this offensive. The remaining forces in this terrorist network must be broken. On that, our determination is total." There are 513 French soldiers stationed at Kabul airport, but there are no French among the 1,500 ground troops in the US-led assault in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Nine US servicemen have been killed near Shahi Kot since the weekend.
Two French journalists were killed in Afghanistan in November, but there have been no French military casualties.
When the Afghan leader, Mr Hamid Karzai, visited Paris last week, he pleaded for the international force ISAF to be extended throughout his country.
But France, like other Western governments, is reluctant to increase its military presence. Ms Dominique Moisi of the French international affairs institute IFRI advocates sending thousands more peacekeepers to Afghanistan, not only to Kabul, but throughout the country. "It's the best guarantee of stability," Ms Moisi explained. "We need to be there now. The lessons of Macedonia and Kosovo are that the earlier you intervene, the better. The politicians are wrong," Mr Moisi adds.