Wow! What a difference an election makes:
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Monday reiterated his country's readiness to help stabilise Iraq, during a flurry of talks with leaders of the country's bitterly divided communities.Well, at least it's a start :-)
"France is ready to play a role in the fight against the violence," Kouchner said at a press conference after talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad.
Kouchner arrived in Iraq on Sunday for a three-day visit, the first by a French official to the war ravaged country since the US-led invasion of March 2003 which Paris vehemently opposed.
Describing as "unacceptable" the bitter sectarian violence which has claimed thousands of lives in the past 18 months, he added: "We want to be at the side of this large and important country at the birth of its democracy."
[...]
He also appeared to be in no hurry to increase France's involvement in Iraq.
"This is just the beginning, I hope, of sort of an end to the crisis. We want to play our cards and our role, but not today -- neither tomorrow -- but yes, one of these days," he said on Sunday.
