France eyes Iraq Paris Club deal, debt write-offs

[leftward]

Reuters, 12.15.03, 6:59 AM ET

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Monday he believed creditor nations in the Paris Club could strike a debt relief deal for Iraq in 2004 and Paris could award debt write-offs.

http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/12/15/rtr1180804.html

[GainesT1958]

1. Gotta hand it to them..

They're doing their level best to find their way around Dub's idiotic policy...now let's see if our dire financial straits due to Iraq expenses makes Dub "bite"...:eyes:

B-)

[mikehiggins]

2. Perhaps I'm being cynical BUT

I would suspect some of France's sudden cooperativeness has its roots in fear of just what Saddam might have to say.

The odds of Saddam living long enough to go on trial just got slimmer.

[htuttle]

3. The rival political party was in power back then

Why would Chirac care whether things the Mitterand government did were exposed? Politically, Chirac is center-right -- Mitterand was left/center-left.

Where do you think Iraq got the money to buy things from France? Us, that's who. I think that any attempt to paint France as 'evil' due to pre-1991 sales to Iraq would backfire on the Bush administration. They are actually many of the same people who helped Hussein in the 1980's.