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POLITICS

French minister urges Iran to stop ‘destabilising acts’

France's foreign minister told her Iranian counterpart Saturday that "Iran and its affiliates" must stop "destabilising acts" that could spark a broader conflict in the Middle East amid the war in Gaza.

Published: 7 January 2024 08:44 CET
French minister urges Iran to stop 'destabilising acts'
French Foreign and European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna. Photo: Miguel MEDINA/AFP.

During a telephone call with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Catherine Colonna “delivered a very clear message: the risk of regional conflagration has never been so great; Iran and its affiliates must immediately cease their destabilising acts”, according to a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

“Nobody would win from escalation,” it added. Their call came after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon said it had targeted an Israeli base with 62 missiles in an “initial response” to the killing of Hamas’s deputy leader in Beirut.

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas militants from Gaza after their lightning attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel since then has been carrying out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza that have killed at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Iran state media also said Saturday that the twin bombing attack Wednesday at a ceremony near the tomb of a top Revolutionary Guards general had killed 91 people, a higher toll than initially reported after two victims died of their wounds.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the strike, which added to fears of a wider conflict in the region.

In an earlier statement, Colonna said she had also spoken with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

“Egypt and France are on the front line for access of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the evacuation of the most seriously wounded,” she said on X.

Colonna added she had also had a “useful conversation” Saturday with her Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, focusing on
three issues — namely, the “freedom of all hostages, cessation of hostilities in Gaza (and) a credible perspective for a Palestinian state.”

Colonna’s ministry meanwhile said that since the start of the year she had also held talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati as well as Riyad al-Maliki, foreign affairs minister of the Palestinian National Authority.

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FRANCE AND GERMANY

France’s Macron visits Germany to soothe ties and warn of far-right peril

Emmanuel Macron on Sunday embarks on the first state visit to Germany by a French president in a quarter century, seeking to ease recent tensions and also warn of the dangers of the far right ahead of EU elections.

Published: 26 May 2024 08:19 CEST
France's Macron visits Germany to soothe ties and warn of far-right peril

Macron on his three-day, four-stop visit will seek to emphasise the historic importance of the postwar relationship between the two key EU states, as France next month commemorates 80 years since the D-Day landings that marked the beginning of the end of German World War II occupation.

But all has not been smooth in a relationship often seen as the engine of the EU, with Berlin taken aback by Macron’s refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine and German officials said to be uneasy at times about his often-theatrical style of foreign policy.

In a question-and-answer session on social media with young people earlier this month, Macron enlisted help from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when asked if the Franco-German “couple” was still working.

“Hello dear friends, long live French-German friendship!” Scholz said in French in a video on Macron’s X feed. “Thank you Olaf! I very much agree with you,” Macron replied in heavily accented German.

While Macron is a frequent visitor to Berlin, the trip will be the first state visit in 24 years following a trip by Jacques Chirac in 2000 and the sixth since the first postwar state visit by Charles de Gaulle in in 1962.

Macron’s trip will begin Sunday afternoon with a day of talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose role is largely ceremonial compared with the might of the French presidency.

On Tuesday he will travel to Dresden in the former East Germany to deliver a speech on Europe at a European festival. Tuesday sees Macron in the western German city of Munster and later in Meseberg outside Berlin for talks with Scholz and a Franco-German joint cabinet meeting.

‘Ways of compromise’

The trip comes two weeks ahead of European elections where polls show that in a major potential embarrassment for Macron, his coalition is trailing well behind the far right and may struggle to even reach third place.

The speech in Dresden, a city where the German far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) garners considerable support, will likely see Macron warn of the danger the far right poses to Europe.

In a keynote address on foreign policy last month, Macron issued a dire warning about the threats to Europe in a changing world in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” Macron said. “It can die and this depends only on our choices.”

Officials from both sides are at pains to emphasise that while there are periodic tensions on specific issues, the fundamental basis of the relationship remains sound.

But Macron’s refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine sparked an unusually acidic response from Scholz that Germany had no such plans. Germany also does not share Macron’s enthusiasm for a European strategic autonomy less dependent on the United States.

“The Franco-German relationship is about disagreeing and trying to find ways of compromise,” said Helene Miard-Delacroix, specialist in German history at the Sorbonne university in Paris.

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