Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company  
The New York Times
April 25, 2003, Friday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 13; Column 5; Foreign Desk

LENGTH: 1454 words

HEADLINE: AFTEREFFECTS: PARIS;
France Works to Limit Damage From U.S. Anger

BYLINE:  By ELAINE SCIOLINO

DATELINE: PARIS, April 24

BODY:
France has embarked on a two-track strategy to adjust to the harsh reality that it will have to pay a steep price for opposing the war against Iraq, French officials and analysts say.

The severity of the long-term damage to relations with the United States is only beginning to be grasped. Senior French officials visiting Washington on non-Iraq issues in recent weeks said they were stunned when their American counterparts informed them of official "resentment and anger" against France, one official said. A French official was told bluntly by a White House official, "I have instructions to tell you that our relations have been degraded."

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made it crystal clear in a television interview on Tuesday night that France would suffer the consequences of its opposition to the American-led war. That followed a senior White House meeting on Monday devoted to finding ways to punish France diplomatically, including the possibility of sidelining it in NATO and downgrading its status at international conferences.

The French response is taking shape in fits and starts and in contradictory directions. It reflects both an acknowledgment of the need to be conciliatory in the face of threats of punishment from Washington and a fierce determination to maintain an active foreign policy that asserts France's independence but is certain to rankle Washington even more.

"Pragmatic" is the word used most often by officials at Elysee Palace to describe President Jacques Chirac's new policy. Officials said he used the word himself when he telephoned President Bush nine days ago after eight weeks of non-communication to tell him of France's willingness to "act in a pragmatic way" on Iraq's reconstruction.

It was this pragmatism that led France to agree unexpectedly to a temporary suspension of United Nations-imposed economic penalties against Iraq on Tuesday, apparently without consulting Russia. It was also pragmatism that prompted senior French officials this week to begin speaking about France's "openness" to a possible peacekeeping and reconstruction role for NATO in Iraq, an idea that they said was floated by Mr. Chirac when he spoke to Mr. Bush.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin reflected that attitude during a visit to Iran today. "We can clearly see that the page on Iraq has been turned and now we must look towards the future," he said.

Mr. Chirac has been roundly criticized by editorialists, political analysts and even members of his own inner circle and party for not understanding the consequences of France's firm opposition to the American-led war in Iraq.

In a meeting with journalists in Paris earlier this week, Robert A. Bradtke, deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs, told reporters that cooperation on longstanding issues involving military and law-enforcement cooperation and intelligence sharing could suffer.

"Can that cooperation be sustained if we have these other disputes?" he asked.

Mr. Chirac enjoys a 65 percent approval rating in the polls, down 10 points from last month but still a comfortable margin. So his pragmatism extends only so far. There is no contrition for the strong French antiwar position.

"We haven't changed our analysis that the war wasn't necessary," said a senior French official. "We don't feel guilty. But now is a different time."

Another senior official put it more starkly. "It is a very serious, long-term crisis," he said. "The message from Washington is, 'You go to Canossa or you are banished to the darkness outside,' " a reference to the site of the Italian castle where the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV did penance to persuade Pope Gregory VII to lift the excommunication against him. France, however, is not in the mood for penance.

Mr. Chirac must move to assuage the fears of French executives of potential American retaliation against France's economy, which was already mired in a recession.

A cartoon in the latest issue of the satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchaine, showed Mr. Chirac facing a group of angry businessmen holding a placard that read, "Our markets!" Mr. Chirac tells them: "I promise you. The next war, we'll do it!"

His government, meanwhile, is struggling in the face of opposition by both unions and some employers to changes in the country's pension system that would cut the benefits of public sector employees. Mr. Chirac is now spending much more time, but still only about 50 percent, on domestic issues, his aides say.

On April 15, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, the head of the French employers' federation known as Medef, took the unusual step of moving into the realm of foreign policy, appealing to American businessmen to refrain from boycotting French companies.

"We must say to those who are unhappy with the French diplomatic position that they are perfectly free to criticize," he told reporters. "But they must keep the goods and services of our businesses out of this quarrel." He warned, "Any sort of boycott makes no sense when we are agreed on the way the world and the markets are moving."

Mr. Chirac has repeatedly played down the potential economic damage to French interests as a result of his antiwar stance, maintaining that formal trade retaliation would violate World Trade Organization regulations. He also has insisted that anti-French sentiment in the United States is a passing phenomenon.

But Mr. Chirac will continue to adhere to positions that seem to guarantee confrontation with Washington. His aides say that France will not agree to the permanent lifting of the penalties against Iraq, just to a temporary "suspension" of perhaps two or three months until Iraq can be declared free of its weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration demands the total lifting of the penalties.

France will also press for the return of some sort of international weapons inspection arrangement under the authority of the United Nations, an idea that Washington has already rejected.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, France remains determined to carve out a foreign policy independent of the United States. Since the war began, Mr. de Villepin has traveled extensively, including a three-day sprint through Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia during which he argued that the "road map" for Middle East peace agreed on by the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia should be published quickly, and followed up by an international conference in Paris.

After visits to Turkey and Jordan earlier this week, he made a hastily scheduled visit to Iran today. Tehran has been branded by Washington as part of an "axis of evil" because of what the United States calls Iran's support of terrorism and its nuclear arms program, But Mr. de Villepin was there to engage, not attack.

He told journalists that he "welcomed" what he called "marked progress" on human rights and called on Iran to "continue confidence-building measures" on its nuclear program including the acceptance of stricter international inspections of its installations.

Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi, said Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian war and Afghanistan were also discussed, adding, "Such discussion, in the currently sensitive climate, are very important and highlight a new track in the relations between Iran and France."

The French Foreign Ministry kept the trip to Iran secret until Mr. de Villepin had already left Paris. Foreign Ministry officials insisted that the trip was unrelated to the war in Iraq, and that he was following the lead of other European foreign ministers who have visited Tehran.

But the trip is certain to be interpreted in Washington as French interference in the region at a time when Washington is trying to keep Iran isolated and has criticized Tehran for what the Bush administration sees as meddling in Iraq.

Mr. de Villepin, who says that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is the gravest threat to regional security today, plans a five-day visit to Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories on May 10. That trip too will inevitably be seen by Washington as meddling.

Next Tuesday, Mr. Chirac will travel to Brussels to participate in talks with Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to discuss ways to build up European defense cooperation.

The Bush administration views the meeting as a misplaced attempt to create a European defense identity separate from NATO and to challenge American military dominance. In his meeting with journalists, Mr. Bradtke called the meeting "a diversion from the very good work that has been done to build up relations between NATO and the European Union." He added, "It's not helpful."  

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LOAD-DATE: April 25, 2003