Saturday, September 22, 2012

France's Araud Likes Freedom to Denigrate Religion, Diplomats Quote Him


By Matthew Russell Lee
 
UNITED NATIONS, September 14 -- In the UN Security Council, statement are adopted by consensus, but some of what is said long rankles other diplomats. So it is with French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud.

  During a closed-door discussion this week of a draft press statement on the killing of US diplomats in Benghazi against a backdrop of protests of an anti-Islam film, Araud said, as paraphrased to Inner City Press by four Council diplomats, that he likes and takes pride in the freedom to denigrate religion.

  One Security Council member told Inner City Press this was "outrageous" and "incitement."

  Another told Inner City Press, but then France should at least be consistent in being for free speech, because there are some kinds of speech they do not allow.

  A third questioned how much this reflects the position of France under Francois Hollande, as opposed to Nicolas Sarkozy, and how much it is "Araud, pure Araud."

  We note that France has positioned itself with the opposition in Libya, particularly in Benghazi then air dropping weapons into the Nafusa mountains, and now in Syria, where even the founder of MSF from Paris has said half of the fighters he treated in Aleppo were, to put it diplomatically, armed opponents of such films.

  Is French policy in this regard schizophrenic? Or is it simply cynical?

  In any event, Araud's statement left a mixture of surprise and anger that was not difficult to suss out even days after that closed-door meeting. So, a late exiting Council member asked, why wasn't it reported elsewhere? Watch this site.