President Sarkozy rewards President Assad for… I’d like to say decent behavior towards Lebanon, but that can't be it. Assad did everything in his power to create havoc in the country, directly and through his allies, yet he receives praises.
France invited President Bashar al-Assad to attend its national holiday celebrations next month after a Mediterranean summit in Paris. Assad is among 50 heads of state and government invited to the July 13 summit on the launch of a new Mediterranean Union, championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy as France takes over the rotating EU presidency.
Reporters Without Borders denounces the gesture.
Nicolas Sarkozy is breaking one commitment after another, the press freedom organisation said. After welcoming Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi with open arms in Paris on 10 December, Human Rights Day, and singing the praises of the Tunisian regime in April, he is now going to celebrate 14 July, which is supposed to be in honour of independence and freedom, next to the president of one of the world's most repressive regimes.
How far is Sarkozy ready to go to promote his Mediterranean Union project? What new concessions will he make to the Libyan leader to get him to support this project? When he was running for president, Sarkozy put human rights at the heart of his programme. He said that, with him as president, talks would be much firmer especially, as regards Russia and China. Today we are far, very far, from these commitments. President Sarkozy, like others before him, is pursing a realpolitik at the expense of the values France is supposed to embody.
