French
President Francois Hollande admitted to delivering weapons to Syrian
rebels in 2012 despite an embargo, according to a new book coming out
in France this month.
"We began when we
were certain they would end up in the right hands. For the lethal
weapons it was our services who delivered them," Hollande told
author Xavier Panon in an interview in May last year. The book by the
journalist specialising in diplomatic and military issues, is
entitled "In the corridors of French diplomacy".
The
terms of the Minsk ceasefire deal on eastern Ukraine cannot be called
into question, German Chancellor Merkel said in Berlin after meeting
with Ukrainian leader Poroshenko – just days after he said the
“times of pacifism” were “over.”
“The
first and foremost condition is that everything is done to make the
ceasefire agreement a reality. The task at hand means that what we
agreed in Minsk has to be respected,” Chancellor
Angela Merkel told reporters on Monday, referring to the February
peace plan based on an OSCE-brokered agreement between Kiev and
self-proclaimed rebel republics in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel
insisted that the Berlin meeting with Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande had been called to
help “implement
the Minsk deal, not to call it into question.”
The
German leader said that Poroshenko has assured her of Kiev’s
commitment to withdrawing weaponry from the front line of the
conflict – and a readiness to pull back weapons under 100mm in
caliber. While the withdrawal of lighter weaponry was not outlined in
the Minsk deal, eastern Ukrainian rebel forces unilaterally pulled
back arms of less than 100mm caliber at the end of July, saying it
was an act of good will in the hope that Kiev would follow suit.
According
to Merkel, a broader arms withdrawal was recently discussed in a
telephone conversation between the leaders of the ‘Normandy Four’
– France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
Both
Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics
have been blaming each other for frequent ceasefire violations,
including the use of heavy weaponry that they had agreed to pull back
under the Minsk Protocol. The OSCE monitoring mission
has confirmed that
both sides have violated the agreement. Shelling continues to hit
parts of the densely populated city of Donetsk: in July, one person
was killed and several others injured as Ukrainian
forces shelledresidential
blocks and a city hospital. Overall, the conflict has claimed more
than 6,700 lives since Kiev sent in the army in April of 2014 for
what it called an “anti-terrorist
operation.”
Poroshenko
‘sought backing for all-out war’?
However,
it is the recent statements by Poroshenko that have been interpreted
as signs of the imminent resumption of all-out war in the
rebel-controlled areas. On Saturday, the Ukrainian leader bluntly
stated that “the
Minsk agreement despite all criticism has given us time to build up
Ukraine’s defense,” adding
that “the
times of airheaded pacifism and shortsighted rejection of security
issues are forever in the past now.”
With
Poroshenko’s remarks coming on the eve of his meeting with Merkel
and Hollande, Moscow reacted by saying it hoped that the European
leaders would put pressure on Kiev to stick to the Minsk agreements.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Merkel and Hollande, who
signed the Minsk deal as guarantors, will have to save their own
reputations and make sure that Ukraine does everything it has pledged
to do to achieve peace.
According
to political analyst Aleksandar Pavic, Poroshenko’s visit most
likely served as a public relations stunt amid serious domestic
economic problems. It could also mean he is seeking to gain backing
for a new military operation in eastern Ukraine.
“I
think Petro Poroshenko is just trying to get additional public
support for what he’s being prepared to do, inside and outside
Ukraine: a new push to resume war in Ukraine. So, I think he probably
has the backing of his Western sponsors, and this is just something
that needs to be more public… Obviously, the rhetoric that’s
coming out of Kiev is that Minsk, the Minsk agreements, are pretty
much dead,” Pavic
told RT.
The
analyst believes that one of the major problems forcing Poroshenko to
seek more public support is the rampant corruption in
post-coup “oligarchic-run”
Ukraine
– corruption that he has publically vowed to fight. Media reports,
such as one published by the German agency dpa, suggested that
fighting corruption in Ukraine was to be the focus of the agenda in
Berlin.
“Nobody’s
serious about dealing with corruption in Ukraine. It’s obvious
after more than a year, a year and a half of the war, ever since the
Maidan, that, if anything, Ukraine is even more corrupt than it was.
It’s now a place being run by the oligarchs, and it’s a much less
democratic place than it was,” Pavic
said, adding that the new Ukrainian authorities have only been
consistent in their push for war in Donbass.
Calling
Poroshenko’s Saturday statement on the Minsk deal “scandalous,” the
analyst pointed to the lack of response coming from the West.
“In
effect, he’s saying that, “No, we weren’t interested in peace
when we were negotiating the Minsk agreement. We were just interested
in buying time because we were losing the war, and now that we are
rearmed, we’re ready to resume the war.” Western capitals haven’t
responded, and really needed to respond very negatively to
Poroshenko’s statements if they were serious about real peace in
Ukraine and the Minsk agreement… They’re actually encouraging
Poroshenko to resume war,” Pavic
said.Wha
Breaking: Hollande and Merkel back Putin's Ceasefire Plan, Minsk II salvaged
The mysterious story
of the crashed in southern France on 24/03/2015 Airbus A320 D-AIPX of
German Wings takes another dramatic turn: Well, the French President
François Hollande mixed into the debate. His indictment: Barack
Obama had the 150 victims on his conscience. The US has shot down the
machine.
The controversial
message caused a sensation and was immediately picked up by mirror,
FAZ, SZ and Focus. That a French president accused of an allied NATO
nation so soon after such a tragedy that would be unique in history,
would Hollande not recently been the CIA - the most famous
intelligence agency of the United States - accused of responsibility
for the Charlie Hebdo massacre (AMR) reported ,
Hollande in the
wording: "Those damn A-Merde Rikaner have done it again! Having
already launched in 1988 the Iran Air Flight 655, now had an airplane
of our partners in Germany to believe it! You want to push us in the
shoes of Frenchman and blackmail us so that we increase the pressure
on Russia. Fucking A Merde Rikaner! "
Hollande's outburst
was not without echo from Washington. President Obama spoke of a
"great disappointment and a deep breach of trust", which
Hollande had committed. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke of "a
barbarous language of the 19th century" and Alt-government
adviser Henry Kissinger warned Hollande that such rhetoric could
quickly lead to a "Regime Change in beautiful France".
Experts believe
meanwhile that Hollande may not could be to blame for the tragedy. In
1980, a historical parallel occurred when the Italian passenger
machine Itavia Flight 870 was of Italian NATO warplanes at Ustica
(Italy) accidentally shot down because they were in at that time in a
dogfight with Libya; Italy covered up the tragedy over 30 years.
Something similar could now be undermined by the French Government,
which seeks Hollande possibly to cover up his verbal attack on the
United States.
So far, however, no
theory to crash German Wings D-AIPX can withstand critical
examination. Media expert and editor of the tabloid Kai Diekmann
advises the press for restraint: "About Fast judgments, lurid
headlines and claimed that anyone knew already sure what happened,
must be regarded as idiotic."
Germanwings
D-AIPX: Hollande beschuldigt USA, Abschuss?
Die mysteriöse
Geschichte um den am 24.03.2015 in Süd-Frankreich abgestürzten
Airbus A320, D-AIPX von Germanwings nimmt einen weiteren dramatischen
Verlauf: Nun mischt sich der französische Präsident François
Hollande in die Debatte. Seine Anklage: Barack Obama habe die 150
Opfer auf dem Gewissen. Die USA haben die Maschine abgeschossen. Die
brisante Meldung erregte großes Aufsehen und wurde sofort von
Spiegel,
FAZ,
SZ
und Focus
aufgegriffen. Dass ein französischer Präsident so kurz nach einer
solchen Tragödie eine verbündete NATO-Nation beschuldigt, wäre
einmalig in der Geschichte, hätte Hollande nicht kürzlich bereits
die CIA – die bekannteste Geheimdienstbehörde der USA –
beschuldigt, das Charlie Hebdo Massaker mit zu verantworten (AMR
berichtete). Hollande im Wortlaut:
“Diese verdammten A-Merde-Rikaner haben es schon wieder getan!
Nachdem sie 1988 bereits den Iran-Air-Flug
655 abgeschossen haben, musste nun ein Flugzeug unserer Partner
in Deutschland dran glauben! Sie wollen es uns Franzosen in die
Schuhe schieben und uns erpressen, damit wir den Druck auf Russland
weiter erhöhen. Verdammte A-Merde-Rikaner!” Hollandes Wutausbruch
blieb nicht ohne Echo aus Washington. Präsident Obama sprach von
einer “großen Enttäuschung und einem tiefen Vertrauensbruch”,
welchen Hollande begangen habe. Außenminister John Kerry sprach von
“einer barbarischen Sprache aus dem 19. Jahrhundert” und
Alt-Regierungsberater Henry Kissinger warnte Hollande, dass derartige
Rhetorik schnell zu einem “Regime Change im schönen Frankreich”
führen könne. Experten nehmen
unterdessen an, dass Hollande eventuell nicht unschuldig an der
Tragödie sein könnte. 1980 ereignete sich eine historische
Parallele, als die italienische Passagier-Maschine Itavia-Flug
870 von italienischen NATO-Kampffliegern bei Ustica (Italien)
versehentlich abgeschossen wurde, da sich diese zu jenem Zeitpunkt im
Luftkampf mit Libyen befanden; Italien vertuschte die Tragödie über
30 Jahre lang. Ähnliches könnte nun der französischen Regierung
unterlaufen sein, was Hollande eventuell mit seinem verbalen Angriff
auf die USA zu vertuschen sucht. Bisher kann allerdings
keine Theorie zum Absturz von Germanwings D-AIPX einer
kritischen Prüfung standhalten. Medienexperte und Chefredakteur der
Bildzeitung Kai Diekmann rät der Presse zu Zurückhaltung:
“Überschnelle Urteile, reißerische Überschriften und jegliche
Behauptung, man wisse schon sicher, was passiert ist, muss als
idiotisch gewertet werden.”
Alexander
Mercouris has given a blitz review of the Putin talks with Hollande &
Merkel.
Drawing from that, I would say something very serious is
going on. Hollande & Merkel are really trying this time, they are dead serious
and scared shit for what might happen if...but as the 5 h talks
evidence, Putin does not seem to be caving into the demands, but at
the same time he is doing everything not to humilate the guests,
cause this time they came with dead earnest pleas.
Putin is therefore
trying to come up with something nice for them to take home. - What I
am concerned of is what will these leaders do for the people
suffering in Donbass, what to do to prevent daily nazi artillery
sheltering of Donetsk and other places of Donbass. That is what
counts. Cause when one person dies, then the world comes to an end.
TALKS
IN MOSCOW
Alexander Mercouris
Via Facebook
They
have apparently continued for 5 hours and are still not finished
though it seems some sort of document is being prepared for tomorrow.
Three
comments:
1.
If negotiations go on for 5 hours that does not suggest a smooth and
conflict free discussion.
2.
One of the most interesting things about the Moscow talks is that
they mainly happened without the presence of aides and officials i.e.
Putin, Hollande and Merkel were by themselves save for interpreters
and stenographers. Putin and Merkel are known to be masters of detail
and given his background as an enarque I presume Hollande also is.
However the German and French officials will be very unhappy about
this. The Russians less so because since the meeting is taking place
in the Kremlin they are listening in to the discussions via hidden
microphones.
One
wonders why this is happening? Even if the Russian officials are not
listening in Merkel and Hollande will assume they are. The fact that
Russian officials were not present is therefore less significant than
that German and French officials have been barred from the meeting by
their respective chiefs, suggesting that Merkel and Hollande do not
entirely trust them.
There
has been an extraordinary degree of secrecy about this whole episode
and it rather looks as if Merkel and Hollande were anxious to stop
leaks and to prevent information about the talks from getting out.
Presumably this is why their officials were barred from the meeting.
From whom one wonders do Merkel and Hollande want to keep details of
the meeting secret? From the media? From other members of their own
governments? From the Americans? What do they need to keep so secret?
The frustration and worry on the part of all these groups must be
intense.
3.The
fact that the British are excluded from the talks is going down very
badly with many people here in London. It has not escaped people's
notice that this is the first major negotiation to settle a big
crisis in Europe in which Britain is not involved since the one that
ended the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Of course it is largely the
fault of the inept diplomacy of Cameron, who has taken such an
extreme pro-Ukrainian position that Moscow simply doesn't see him as
someone worth talking to. Also one suspects Merkel and Hollande do
not trust Cameron not to leak the whole discussion to whomever they
want to keep it from. Having said that it is difficult to see this as
anything other than further evidence of Britain's decline into
complete irrelevance. I cannot imagine Thatcher being excluded in
this way. If the United Kingdom is indeed in the process of breaking
up (and as I suspected the Scottish referendum settled nothing with
polls indicating that the SNP may make an almost clean sweep of all
the seats in Scotland in the election in May) then the slide into
irrelevance still has a long way to go.
Putin,
Hollande, Merkel talks on Ukraine ‘constructive’, possible
document in progress – Kremlin
Talks
between Russia’s President Putin, France’s President Hollande,
and German Chancellor Merkel have been constructive and work is
underway on a possible joint document aimed at implementing the Minsk
agreements, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“On
the basis of proposals made by the French President and German
Chancellor, there is currently ongoing joint work to prepare the text
of a possible joint document on the implementation of the Minsk
agreements – a document that would include proposals made by
Ukrainian President Poroshenko and proposals put forward today by
Russian President Putin,” Dmitry Peskov said after the talks
between the three leaders finished in Moscow on Friday.
He
explained that after the document is prepared it will be presented to
both sides in the conflict in Ukraine for approval. Peskov
characterized the talks as “constructive, informative and
substantive.”
The
preliminary results of the talks will be discussed in a telephone
call between the ‘Normandy Four’ – Russia, France, Germany, and
Ukraine – on Sunday, he said.
The
French government viewed the talks as having been “constructive and
meaningful,” RIA Novosti reported, citing French media sources in
the Hollande administration. Meanwhile, German sources said that the
document on Ukraine will include suggestions from each of the
'Normandy Four' leaders.
“Currently,
there is work underway on a possible joint document, which will allow
the Minsk agreements [on ceasefire in Ukraine] to be fulfilled,”
the French sources said.
This
was also confirmed by German government spokesman Steffen Seibert in
a statement.
Following
both the talks and a joint dinner, French President Francois Hollande
and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have traveled back to the
airport.
The
importance of the talks has been highlighted by the fact that the
details have been shrouded in secrecy. RT’s Maria Finoshina
reported from the Kremlin that the journalists were given a mere 30
seconds to take photographs of the three leaders, and none of them
uttered a single word to the press during the photo-shoot.
Hollande
and Merkel arrived in Moscow on Friday evening. They headed straight
to the Kremlin for talks on the Ukrainian crisis with President
Vladimir Putin behind closed doors in discussion which lasted for
nearly five hours.
The
Minsk Protocol – an agreement to stop the conflict in eastern
Ukraine – was signed in September by representatives of Kiev, the
self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Russian
envoy to Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE) following talks in the Belarusian capital.
The
document outlined twelve points, urging a bilateral ceasefire and
calling for measures to resolve the conflict in Donbass. A follow-up
memorandum listed concrete steps to enforce a ceasefire, including a
pullback of heavy weaponry, the creation of a 30-kilometer buffer
zone, a ban on offensive operations and combat flights, as well as
the setting up of an OSCE watchdog mission.
The
ceasefire agreement was initially lauded as successful, with prisoner
swaps taking place and fighting reducing in intensity. However, in
January there was a rapid escalation in the conflict, with both the
Kiev government and the rebels blaming each other for starting an
offensive at Donetsk’s main airport, which was partly held by the
Ukrainian armed forces at the time. Kiev stepped up its military
operation and the shelling of Donbass cities after losing the
airport, and self-proclaimed officials responded with harsh rhetoric,
also pledging to fight back and attack.
Most
recently, a dramatic escalation of fighting turned the eastern city
of Debaltsevo, between Donetsk and Lugansk, into a warzone, with
civilians coming under intense shelling. Destroyed tanks and armored
vehicles littered the city’s streets. Local militia fighters said
that they had negotiated a humanitariancorridor for civilians in the
area, which was later confirmed by Kiev.
However,
the evacuation of Debaltsevo did not go smoothly from the very
outset. Russian journalists, including an RT crew, came under sniper
fire at a checkpoint near the city, with militia firing back.
According to RT’s Roman Kosarev, “bullets were flying two or
three meters” away from the group. Luckily, nobody was injured in
the shootout.
"The
EU 1%ers are now capitalizing on these murders to crack down on their
own population. Sarkozy already met Hollande and they both agreed
that new levels of firmness and vigilance need to be implemented.
Does that not reek of a French 9/11?"
---The Saker
Via Google Translate
Sarkozy has asked Holland to increase "the level of firmness and vigilance"
Sarkozy a demandé à Hollande d'augmenter "le niveau de fermeté et de vigilance"
Nicolas Sarkozy was back at the Elysee Palace for the first time since May 15, 2012. He was received by François Hollande after the attack against Charlie Hebdo. If he called for political unity, he took the opportunity to request an increase in the "level of firmness and vigilance."
" I think it was my duty to respond to this invitation , "said the former president of the Republic. " Civilized man must unite to respond to barbarism . " He expressed his excitement at the sight of spontaneous gatherings of thousands of French in support of Charlie Hebdo. " I am quite impressed with the attitude of our compatriots and spontaneous demonstrations of unity in a climate of meditation, with great firmness of demand, but a very great dignity on the part of our countrymen . "
Nicolas Sarkozy has called for political unity. And he said he had told Francois Hollande of the need to increase the level of firmness and vigilance, offering the support of the opposition. " I told the President Holland there were decisions to make. I understand that he would make proposals. If it is in a spirit of unity and in order to enhance the effectiveness our security forces we will participate there as well. Not in a spirit of confrontation between the opposition and the majority, but a shared concern for the protection of the French . "
"Civilized man must unite to meet barbarism" (Nicolas Sarkozy)
French
President Francois Hollande is wary of the impact economic crisis in
Russia might have on Europe. He has called for sanctions imposed
against Moscow to be lifted as soon as there’s progress in peace
talks over Ukraine.
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