Sarkozy and The Diplomacy of Planes
Elias Harfouche Al Hayat - 16/12/07//
The French President is assuming that the Syrians will wake up anxious tomorrow should the presidential elections in Lebanon fail to take place. Nicolas Sarkozy "warned" that tomorrow Monday is the "last chance" to elect a president for the republic or else…Syria may lose the "honor" of hosting him in Damascus!
This is Sarkozy's offer put forth on a plate of temptations to the Syrian leadership since the "humane" Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner embarked upon his marathon tour of Beirut. Sarkozy explained the conditions of his offer to visit the Syrian capital in his latest interview with the French magazine "Le Nouvel Observateur" saying: The regime in Syrian is surely not democratic but if consensus elections take place in Lebanon, and if the assassinations stop and Syria does not impede the work of the international tribunal, I will be ready to visit Damascus. Similarly to the visit undertaken by Sarkozy to the Libyan capital and his meeting with General Mohammad Gaddafi following his release of the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, he is ready to visit Damascus once the presidential elections in Lebanon are set free. In his latest interview, Sarkozy added a new offer to Iran this time, which is that he is ready to visit Tehran too if the International Atomic Energy Agency is allowed to carry out the task of observing the Iranian properties. He is also ready to cooperate therewith about the production of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
This foreign policy that the President of France dreams of, and which is based on the temptations of his visit to the trouble-making capitals, may be unique in international relations. Usually, these relations are based on political understandings and common and established rules of conduct, which naturally entail the exchange of visits. As for the visit offers as a way to seek concessions, they may be a possible approach between lovers to blackmail and stir up as much passion and love as possible. But they are not the ideal approach to manage the relations between nations. Despite that, they seem to have become Sarkozy's best approach to run French's foreign relations.
There could have been no harm as a result of this policy. In fact, this approach could have been used in managing the relations as a source of amusement and fun. This is indeed the impression left by Gaddafi's visit to Paris, and which came in response to Sarkozy's visit to Tripoli and "the contribution" of his divorcee Cecilia in solving the issue of the Bulgarian nurses. But Sarkozy's unique initiatives have repercussions on France and its international role. For instance, when Gaddafi seizes the opportunity of his visit to criticize "human rights" in France and the rules of democratic acts therein, the only thing left is for Libya to announce the holding of training sessions for the French legislators to learn the rules of "democracy" in Libyan fashion. The latter is based n the theory of "mass ruling." As such, Gaddafi's visit falls more in the scope of caricature than in the scope of politics!
The perspective of the French offers is linked to the way these nations understand the process of openness thereto. Sarkozy says that France's role becomes important when it stands ready for discussions with everyone. An excellent stance! But let's come and see how these nations view the offers to open up thereto and hold discussions therewith. The Syrian Vice-President interpreted, for instance, the latest steps to open up to his country in the framework of striving for facilitating the solution in Lebanon as a corroboration of its important role and power to contribute to the solutions and the need of the external forces for its assistance.
The French President responded to those who criticized his calls to President Bashar al-Assad saying: How is it possible to save the chance to elect a consensus president in Lebanon and convince the Syrians to leave Lebanon alone if we don't talk with them? In the meantime, the Syrian side did not make any promise or launch any initiative that could imply that openness to Damascus and Sarkozy's offer to visit it could be complemented by steps on its side to facilitate the solution. On the contrary, Damascus was satisfied to refer examiners to its "friends" in Lebanon, who have the "freedom" in the decision-making process, such as General Michel Aoun who has "at hand" the conditions of the solution!
Based on this, it is possible to say that the plane of France's President will be late for the date set to fly to Damascus, and may be to Tehran too. The diplomacy of planes and emotions may be helpful in other places and circumstances, but it remains useless when the hosting regimes don't sense any danger threatening them, whether the guests come to visit them or remain in their countries.
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