Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Editor's Choice

News

Most Viewed

Day Week Month

In Focus

Ansarullah

Ansarullah

A Zaidi Shiite movement operating in Yemen. It seeks to establish a democratic government in Yemen.
Shiite

Shiite

represents the second largest denomination of Islam. Shiites believe Ali (peace be upon him) to be prophet"s successor in the Caliphate.
Resistance

Resistance

Axis of Resistances refers to countries and movements with common political goal, i.e., resisting against Zionist regime, America and other western powers. Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine are considered as the Axis of Resistance.
Persian Gulf Cooperation Council

Persian Gulf Cooperation Council

A regional political u n i o n consisting of Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except for Iraq.
Taliban

Taliban

Taliban is a Sunni fundamentalist movement in Afghanistan. It was founded by Mohammed Omar in 1994.
  Wahhabism & Extremism

Wahhabism & Extremism

Wahhabism is an extremist pseudo-Sunni movement, which labels non-Wahhabi Muslims as apostates thus paving the way for their bloodshed.
Kurds

Kurds

Kurds are an ethnic group in the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region, which spans adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They are an Iranian people and speak the Kurdish languages, which form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian branch of Iranian languages.
NATO

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.
Islamic Awakening

Islamic Awakening

Refers to a revival of the Islam throughout the world, that began in 1979 by Iranian Revolution that established an Islamic republic.
Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

A militant Sunni organization founded by Osama bin Laden at some point between 1988 and 1989
New node

New node

Map of  Latest Battlefield Developments in Syria and Iraq on
alwaght.net
Report

Paris Shifting Stances as Hollande Slams US Response to 9/11

Tuesday 13 September 2016
Paris Shifting Stances as Hollande Slams US Response to 9/11

Alwaght- The response by the United States to the September 2001 terrorist attacks, particularly the invasion of Iraq, fostered rather than curbed global terrorism, French President Francois Hollande has said.

In a Facebook post commemorating the victims of the 9/11 attacks, Hollande criticized the way the administration of then President George W. Bush responded to the tragedy.

"The response that the American administration gave to these attacks... far from eradicating the threat, expanded it over a wider area. Namely to Iraq," the French president wrote.

"And even though France, through [ex-President] Jacques Chirac, rightly refused to join the intervention [in Iraq] which it condemned, it has nonetheless been a victim of the consequences of the chaos it caused." Referring to attacks by terrorists in his country, Hollande said each such attack was like a re-enactment of 9/11, with its consequences of "buried lives, broken destinies and grieving families."

The French president added that terrorists are targeting democracy, freedom, tolerance and culture.

The open criticism of US policies by the French president is a pointer to attempts by Paris to adopt more independent stances and policies on international issues.

Following 9/11 attacks carried out on US soil and blamed on the Al-Qaeda  terrorist group, the immediate reaction by Washington was to launch an attack on Afghanistan to oust a Taliban-controlled regime in Kabul, had given refuge to  the terrorist group’s leader, Osama bin Laden.

The US continued it military adventures by invading Iraq two years later on the pretext that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein government had links to Al-Qaeda apart from processing Weapons of Mass Destruction. None of the allegations were true but the country was attacked and occupied.

The chaos that followed in Iraq led to the emergence of several terrorist groups including ISIS which continues to occupy parts of the Arab state while committing the most heinous crimes in modern history. ISIS has not only spread turmoil in Iraq and the West Asia region, but its tentacles have spread to other parts of the world including Europe.

France suffered most ISIS attacks in Europe

France has borne the brunt of alleged ISIS terrorist group attacks among Western European countries.

The US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 and the subsequent spread of global terrorism has impacted negatively on Europe with several other countries apart from France being targeted by terrorists.

Experts opine that Hollande’s recent anti-US remarks do not necessarily imply a significant shift in the country’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Washington.

There have been occasional divergent opinion on international relation between Paris and Washington. But France, in principle, continue to support US interests be they military or political especially considering the fact that both countries a principal member of the NATO military alliance.

France like the US pursues a policy of militarization of international relations. France has been involved in multiple military interventions abroad in the past few years including especially in its former colonies in Africa.

The French people still recall nostalgically how on June 21, 1966, the country made and independent move to withdraw its troops from the US-led NATO military alliance. This decision led by French president Charles de Gaulle complicated relations with the US but asserted France’s independent stance.  The current leadership in France, just like other European, states seem unable to chart policies independent of Washington’s influence.

The European Union remains dependent on the US both militarily and economically thus making it difficult to steer away from the US influence. Both sides also share common values when it comes to imposing decadent Western beliefs and values  to other countries.

Is Europe drifting away from US?

However, the cohesion of the Western world has been called into question following the announcement by the German authorities on August the 28th of the collapse of the negotiations of the “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States. Commenting on the TTIP around the same time, French President François Hollande said he saw no prospect of concluding the talks. He declared, “The current discussions on the treaty between Europe and the United States will not be able to reach a conclusion before the end of the year. France prefers to speak frankly on the situation and not to cultivate illusions that it will be possible to reach an agreement before the end of the American president’s term... The negotiations are bogged down, positions have not been respected; it’s clearly unbalanced.”

As trade ties with the US take a nose dive, there have been calls for European countries to deepen their military ties. Germany and France have outlined plans to deepen European military cooperation, a document showed on Monday, as Britain's exit from the European Union removes one of the biggest obstacles to stronger EU defense in tandem with NATO.

In potentially the biggest leap in European defense since the 1990s, Berlin and Paris are laying out ways for the bloc to rapidly deploy forces, with security cooperation emerging as a unifying force for Europe after Britain's shock vote to leave.

Considering the foregoing, EU , US trade and military ties might experience turbulent times in future due to changing global dynamics and emergence of new powers and players in the international arena.

Tags :

Hollande France US EU ISIS Terrorists

Comments
Name :
Email :
* Text :
Send

Gallery

Photo

Film

Breathtaking and sad moments of Shahid Rajaee Port  Iran mourns

Breathtaking and sad moments of Shahid Rajaee Port Iran mourns