シリア危機 ー フランスの場合
フランスでは早くからシリア空爆の立場をとっている。が、キャメロンが議会での反対決議で動きがとれなくなり、フランスがどういう行動をとるのかが注目されている。そのさなか、首相による空爆支持をめぐる演説ならびに議会での討議が2時間ほどなされた。
首相は、「シリアにおけるアサド政権の化学兵器使用の非人道性、そしてそれにたいし世界が行動を起こさなければ、化学兵器は野放しに使用されることになる」といった発言を行なった。オランドと同じ立場である（当たり前だが）。
フランスは、少なくとも地域大国を目指す国という側面をもっている。とくに旧植民地のアフリカへの影響力を保持しようとする意欲は強い。その点でもフランス語を国際語として維持しようとする動機をもっている。
サルコジはカダフィと緊密な間柄を保っていたし、いまのアサドにたいしても2008年のバスチーユでの閲兵式に彼を特別招待したりしている。
国際政治は、リアル・ポリティックスと理想主義のあいだで絶えず揺れている。そして政治家は「自由、博愛、民主主義」を利用することも多い。なぜならそれは国民の感情に訴えやすく、したがって軍事介入を容易にできるからである。
アメリカもムバラク政権を長年支援してきた。軍事援助を含めて、である。それはイスラエルとアラブの争いを緩和する国であるという点も大きかった。
ムバラク政権が崩壊し、選挙で新たな大統領が選ばれるも、今度はムスリム同胞団の勢力拡大のため、事実上の軍事クーデターが起こり、いまや軍の支配のもと新たな大統領が登場している。アメリカはいまのエジプトにたいしても軍事援助を継続している。
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Syria intervention must be firm and fast, French prime minister tells MPs
France has obligation to stop Assad regime using chemical weapons, says Jean-Marc Ayrault echoing François Hollande
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• Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
• The Guardian, Wednesday 4 September 2013 20.03 BST
The French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, addresses MPs about whether France should launch a military strike in Syria. Photograph: Charles Platiau/Reuters
The French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, has made an emotional appeal in parliament for firm, fast intervention in Syria, blaming Bashar al-Assad for "the biggest, most terrifying use of chemical weapons" this century, warning that inaction would let him carry out more atrocities and send the wrong message to other regimes like Iran.
Addressing MPs during a two-hour parliament debate on whether and why France should launch a military intervention in Syria, Ayrault echoed strong language already used by the French president, François Hollande, pleading that France had a moral obligation and duty of honour to put a stop to the Syrian regime's certain and abominable use of chemical weapons.
France has been pushing for action from early on in the crisis. But Hollande finds himself in an awkward position since London ruled out involvement in military intervention and Barack Obama turned to the US Congress for a vote. Some opposition politicians have accused the French government of simply "tagging along" behind the US in regards to a war in a volatile region.
Ayrault insisted: "It's not war we're proposing". He said France had consistently called for specific targeted and dissuasive international action that was "not a war, but a warning [to Syria] to stop."
He denied that France was just deferring to the US. "We're not simply following," he said. "We're ready to take this decision to stop [chemical weapons use]. We can't do it alone. We've wanted an international coalition from the start, not just militarily but politically.
"Our position is clear. It's the US president's right to call Congress. But we're not following a US decision. It's our own decision that we can finally put in place, with a need to be clear, firm and fast".
He added that if France did nothing, "what credibility would our international commitments against non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, stand for? What message would this send to other regimes – Iran and North Korea? The message would be clear: you can continue."
He denied that action would be aimed at ousting the Syrian leader. "Of course we want the departure of Assad. But there's no question of launching operations to overturn the regime."
He said French action would be "legitimate, collective and well thought out." When faced with barbarity, he insisted passivity could not be an option. Not to react would be to send a message to Assad that chemical weapons could be used again tomorrow and "maybe even in a bigger way".
In a scathing speech, Christian Jacob, head of the opposition right-wing UMP parliament group, said his party would not support Hollande if he went ahead with military action without UN backing. He said France's role was not to just "sit and wait for the US Congress with its arms crossed." He warned that France lacked European allies and was in a "diplomatic and military impasse." He warned of "troubling similarities with Iraq", lauding France's decision to oppose US-led intervention in Iraq in 2003. He said France, always "free and independent" was now as isolated as it had ever been.
The Greens' François de Rugy reminded Jacob that the rightwing UMP president Nicolas Sarkozy was the only head of state who had wanted to "rehabilitate the Syrian dictator" by giving him a place of honour at the French Bastille day military parade in 2008.
The Socialists argued that, 100 years after France was the first country that saw a chemical attack on its soil during the first world war, Paris had a historical duty to stop the "appalling move backwards" of chemical weapons being used today.
The debate was held without a parliamentary vote, despite opposition MPs' call for one. The French president's vast constitutional powers mean he is not obliged to call a vote before taking military action abroad, but the government has not totally ruled one out at some stage, saying it needed more elements on planned intervention first.
