Friday, November 04, 2005

US and France convergence in the Middle East

A very good paper by Olivier Guitta (via Counterterrorism) of the Brookings Institution, on the changed French attitude towards Hizbullah and the convergence of US-France interests in the Middle East. Conclusion:

But after all is said and done, the main reason for this French-US diplomatic alliance on Hizbullah is to get at Hizbullah’s two sponsors: Syria and Iran. Indeed, by toughening its stance against Hizbullah, France in particular is sending a new, clear and loud message to Damascus and Tehran. And it is no coincidence that France is simultaneously putting pressure on Syria to clean up its act in Lebanon and also on Iran to end its nuclear program. In closing the gap between them on the Lebanon issue, France and the United States are moving beyond the tensions caused by the Iraq War and proving that they are much more effective when they join forces.

Read it all.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you really want to read a brief but interesting paper published by the West Coast Midnight Run on what's coming down the pipes not only for Europe but for the USA as well, check out the segment by the West Coast Midnight Run (midnighttracks.com) titled "What's Eating the Europen Union?"