The new French president's foray into Middle East politics leaves many questions unresolved, writes David Berthaud President Hosni Mubarak's visit to Paris two days after French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner left Lebanon via Cairo suggests that French diplomacy is off and running like French President Nicolas Sarkozy himself with his many ambitions at home. Sarkozy is everywhere, talking a lot about his plans of action which he boasted will be successful. Last week, Sarkozy focussed attention on Egypt. In an exclusive interview with the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, the French president set out his hopes with respect to Egypt and the Middle East in general. As a presidential candidate Sarkozy did not deal much with foreign policy and only now are his positions on foreign affairs becoming clear. A new president invariably means a period of uncertainty about his general political leanings, even if the traditional consensus inherited from Gaullist traditions has since compelled presidents to respect what is called "the voice of France" when it comes to foreign policy. But Sarkozy has begun his presidential term of office overturning political traditions all over the place, including foreign policy. So what are his plans for the next five years, especially in the Middle East? Many observers say that relations between France and the Middle East have never been so poor, something that started with the death of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Lord Palmerston, who was British foreign secretary in the mid- 19th century, said, "Great Britain does not have permanent allies; it only has permanent interests." This defines the pragmatic or realistic approach to foreign policy, which we can be pretty sure will be Sarkozy's approach. What are exactly the interests of France abroad? As the United States is preparing an international conference on peace in the Middle East, France has the role of bringing the parties involved together to negotiate. Thus resumption of dialogue with Syria, stopped since the assassination of the late Lebanese premier Rafiq Al-Hariri -- a close friend of former French president Jacques Chirac -- could put France at the centre of this process. Soon after his election, Sarkozy declared that France had to restore dialogue with Syria. The only snag in this conference scenario would be the abandonment of the Palestinian cause. Does the presumption that Sarkozy is the most pro-American president of the Fifth Republic mean that French foreign policy will change? Last September, as candidate for the presidential elections, he declared, "We can no longer make our disagreements [with Washington] a crisis." Since then, Sarkozy has tried to downplay this departure from the Gaullist tradition. France's former president, Charles de Gaulle stood aloof from the US more than forty years ago, leaving NATO, criticising the war in Vietnam and ordering an embargo on weapons to all belligerent states of the "Six Day War". What will remain of this legacy? He campaigned on a break with the past. Between a new approach and continuity, Sarkozy seems to straddle the fence, adopting a polite tone with the US while supporting Chirac's policy of non-intervention of French troops in Iraq since the Union pour un Movement Populaire congress in autumn 2006. The appointment of Bernard Kouchner, a Socialist and pragmatic "Atlanticist", as his foreign minister is interesting. He is the founder of Medecins san Frontieres and originally favoured the US invasion of Iraq. He was successful in getting a United Nations resolution to intervene in Darfur. On Lebanon, despite "great difficulties", Kouchner did not throw in the towel in his attempt to bring the contending parties to the negotiation table. Before meeting Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, in the Egyptian capital on 29 July, he was publicly very pleased about the progress of French diplomacy within the framework of discussions between fourteen parties two weeks ago in the conference at La Celle- St-Cloud. "Lebanese leaders from all communities are talking to each other. It has been the first time since November 2006. This is progress," he declared in Cairo the following day. He said there would be another meeting in France. But will the Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah be received by Sarkozy? Or will Sarkozy be held hostage by the US? Earlier, in July the French president refused to play host to Nasrallah, having earlier qualified his party as a "terrorist organisation", leading to a boycott by Nasrallah and Lebanese parlimentarian Nabih Berri of the La Celle-St-Cloud conference. Kouchner, in order to smooth the rough edges, said he was "prepared to accept" Hizbollah. It will certainly not be easy for Sarkozy to get rid of the Gaullist heritage in order to get closer to Washington, and get more involved in the "global war against terrorism". Three months after accession to power, Sarkozy has revealed some of his intentions. He has first set out to reassure the people of the Middle East that France is a mediator. The future will tell us if those declarations were based on fact or fiction.
