Chirac high on list of casualties

By CATHERINE FIELD

Eating humble pie is not something that comes easily to Jacques Chirac. Accustomed to the flunkies and gilt splendour of the Elysee Palace and his ego nicely inflated by last year's election victories, the word humility has not been in the French President's lexicon for some time.

So, faced with France's biggest diplomatic setback in decades, Chirac is groping for discretion and dignity as he beats a retreat over his Iraqi policy.

He hopes some soothing words, a few concessions and a swing of fortune's pendulum will ease his international isolation and ward off US reprisals against his country.

Chirac and the apparent architect of his hardline policy, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, rank second to Saddam Hussein as political casualties of the Iraqi campaign.

A month ago, the French pair were riding high: they led an anti-war front with Germany and Russia that stood up to the US giant. They were supported, according to polls, by more than 80 per cent of the electorate at home. Abroad, Chirac was hailed by critics of the US as a man of principle and honour.

One month on, and the stock of both men has taken a serious tumble and France's - and Chirac's - pretensions to be a world player along with it.

The swift victory and relatively few allied and civilian deaths has handed a huge success to US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But it has sidelined Chirac and de Villepin, making them in the victors' eyes look either spoilers or irrelevant having disqualified themselves from tackling the world's crises.

The decisions made by the White House's inner circle could affect France economically as well as politically.

The signals they send could worsen the boycott of French goods by jingoistic American consumers and ensure French firms get only the crumbs from the reconstruction contracts on offer in post-war Iraq.

It took Chirac and de Villepin a day or so for the implications of the fall of Baghdad to sink in.

"Poor Mr Chirac," said Le Parisien "I bet he could scarcely bring himself to watch those TV images of the victorious Americans being welcomed in Baghdad."

Once the pair had grasped the awful position in which they found themselves, they grappled for a response that would help place France on the side of the victors, a difficult thing to do, given that Chirac had branded the war as illegal because it had not been sanctioned by the United Nations.

Chirac's first move was to try to patch things up with Britain, whose interests in Europe are intertwined with those of France. He phoned Blair, and the two leaders - who just a month ago were not even on speaking terms - had by official accounts a cosy, "unscheduled" 25-minute meeting on the sidelines of the EU summit in Athens this week.

Chirac then reluctantly had to deal with Bush. After waiting five days after the fall of Baghdad, he phoned the White House. The "businesslike"conversation was followed a day later by a big French concession.

Nato agreed to take up peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan, replacing the International Security Assistance Force, which comprises 4600 troops from nearly 30 countries.

That move is remarkable, for it is the first time the Atlantic alliance will operate outside its area of interest. It is also a significant climbdown by France, as well as by Germany and Belgium, which in the run-up to the Iraqi conflict had blocked Nato from sending reinforcements to Turkey, arguing that the move would fuel the "logic of war".

Another card in Chirac's hand is the European Union. His European affairs minister, Noelle Lenoir, has even floated the idea that EU members could send troops to Iraq to help maintain order.

The suave de Villepin has been generously rubbing in the balm of forgetfulness.

"Let us be pragmatic," he said. "It is in the interest of Iraq, the region and the international community. It is obvious the US Administration has a role to play. It is useless to go back to what divided us. Let us turn to the future."

For all the talk about pragmatism, France has still not abandoned its declared opposition to the war on the principle of defending the UN, multilateralism and non-aggression.

Indeed, it is keeping up the anti-war front with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and ensured that the EU summit in Athens on Thursday issued a statement calling for the UN to have a "central role" in Iraq.

That tactic shows Chirac is hedging his bets. If the occupation of Iraq turns out to be too bloody or costly, France will have been vindicated.

Public support for the Iraqi policy is wavering, though. A poll found just 55 per cent of voters still agreed France was right to refuse to join the military campaign against Iraq.

"It's not so much that the French people don't like to be seen as losers," said Dominique de Moisi, of the French Institute of International Affairs, "but more that they believe France's position on the war has proved to be irrelevant.

"But what will strengthen President Chirac's position - and weaken Bush's position - is if no weapons of mass destruction are found in Iraq after all."

At home, observers are looking for indications as to who will carry the can for forcing Chirac to so publicly repent.

Some wonder whether de Villepin can survive. Others blame Chirac.

Buoyed up by his self-image as the elder statesman of Europe and with public opinion on his side, he took the crucial decisions and ploughed on.

Diplomats note that at one stage France was a hair's breadth away from signing up to the coalition - all it needed, they say, was for a bit more shuttle diplomacy from the American side.

Herald Feature: Iraq war