Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, who is generally considered the most dovish member of the administration, warned France yesterday that it would pay a price for its opposition to the Iraq war.
His blunt remarks suggest that France’s conciliatory proposal that most UN sanctions on Iraq should to suspend has done little to heal the US-French rift.
The White House clearly remains angry that France’s threat to use its security council veto prevented it getting a further resolution authorising military action.
Asked on a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) talk show whether France would suffer consequences for trying to frustrate war plans, Powell answered yes.
”We have to look at all aspects of our relationship in the light of this,” he said.
”We didn’t believe that France was playing a helpful role [at the UN], there is no secret about that.”
Powell is known to feel personally let down by his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, who insisted in January on attending a UN session on counter-terrorism and then, without warning Powell, staged a press conference vowing to oppose military action in Iraq.
Powell, who had persuaded President Bush to take his case to the UN, became convinced that Paris was determined to veto military action in any circumstances.
His subsequently hawkish line on Iraq helped to slightly narrow the gap between the state department and the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. The two men had lunch together yesterday.
A US administration official confirmed yesterday that some steps would be taken to downgrade formal relations between Washington and Paris — possibly ending the regular four-way consultations between foreign ministry political directors from the US, France, Britain and Germany.
France may also encounter difficulties in exploiting its oil concessions in Iraq.
But the official said there was no question of broader economic sanctions.
”We have a broad and deep relationship, and this is not going to disturb that in the long run,” he said.
The Pentagon is pushing for harder-edged measures, primarily in Nato, where moves are being made to squeeze Paris out of the inner councils for blocking plans to send Nato defence systems to Turkey before the war.
The long process of returning France to the integrated military structure of Nato, from which it withdrew in 1966, has yet to be completed.
Powell’s remarks make it clear that last week’s telephone call from Jacques Chirac to George Bush, the first between the presidents for two months, did nothing to heal the worst split between the two nations since Charles de Gaulle’s cooling towards Nato and closure of US bases in France in 1966.
The official French response to Powell came from De Villepin on a visit to Turkey.
He said: ”Throughout the crisis France, along with a very large majority of the international community, acted in conformity with its convictions and its principles to defend international law” — a reference to a determination to reinforce UN authority.
”It will continue to do so in all circumstances.”
Relations looked likely to worsen further yesterday as France made it clear that it opposed ending UN control over Iraq’s oil exports in the near future. President Bush has called for all sanctions to be lifted, not merely suspended.
The move to block an immediate lifting of oil sanctions is part of France’s attempt to ensure a ”central role” for the UN in postwar Iraq, as opposed to the ”vital role” proposed by the US presidency.
France also wants the return of the UN weapons inspectors, implying that it does not trust the US plan to send its own inspection team.
Meanwhile, an opinion poll released in Brussels showed a high level of French resistance to buying American goods. About 17% of those questioned by a PR agency, Weber Shandwick, said they were ready to boycott US imports.
The survey suggested that 11% of people in Britain and 13% of those in Germany held similar views. In France 11% of shoppers said that they also rejected British goods. – Guardian Unlimited Â