DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - FRANCE/LEBANON: FRENCH F.M. BERNARD KOUCHNER SAYS IT IS FAIR THAT THE LEBANESE ARMY HAMMER FATAH AL ISLAM

Attack by army would be justified: French FM

BEIRUT: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday that a Lebanese army decision to crush armed Islamist militants holed in a camp in northern Lebanon in a military action would be “fair.”

“We back the government and the army, let them take their decision. The decision is up to them, and if they take such a decision it would be fair,” he said at a press conference before ending a two-day trip to Lebanon.

But he warned that “the consequences are always difficult to calculate.”

“I hope that if they take this decision, to attack the camp, let this happen after the evacuation of as many civilians as possible, which is absolutely necessary and is already taking place,” he said.

Kouchner, on his first trip abroad since being appointed less than a week ago, met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and other political and religious officials during his stay in Lebanon.

In a radio interview yesterday, Kouchner said that Paris would continue to snub Syria because it did not believe Damascus respected Lebanon’s autonomy.

HE told Europe 1 radio that French foreign policy in the region would reflect that of the previous president, Jacques Chirac, who was close to the Lebanese government.

“We are ready to talk with all personalities and representatives of groups who are in favour of Lebanon’s unity, its autonomy and its territorial integrity,” Kouchner said.

“This clearly means we don’t have to talk to Syrian leaders,” he said, adding that France might be ready to resume contact as soon as the Syrian position on Lebanon changed.

Asked if Syria represented a “threat” for Lebanon, Kouchner said: “(The threat) comes especially from that side, but it also comes from other directions in a region, that as you know, will never find peace until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is peacefully resolved.”

He added that Iran was also influencing the situation as was the “chaos” in Iraq.

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1) Attack by army would be justified: French FM