Source:
ReutersSun Aug 19, 2007 2:14pm ET137
By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on Sunday on the first visit by a top French official to Iraq since the beginning of the U.S.-led war in 2003 which France vigorously opposed.
Kouchner's arrival in Baghdad coincided with President Nicolas Sarkozy's return from a holiday in the United States which was seen as an effort to improve relations with U.S. President George W. Bush after a bitter fallout over the war.
Kouchner, invited to Baghdad by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, told a news conference he was on a listening visit and had not come to present any diplomatic initiative.
"I want to listen to the people ... We have to understand this country, we have to understand what's going on between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis, not only in Iraq," he said.
Read more:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-08-19T181755Z_01_YAT713362_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml
"...on a listening visit...?" Why that's just crazy! Listening to "the people." :eyes:
Btw, my Dad is a French Immigrant/Holocaust Refugee, so yes, I'm kidding.