French Will Send 2,000 Troops to Lebanon

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

After much back and forth, France now says it will send as many as 2,000 troops to southern Lebanon. It also says that it is ready to keep command of the U.N. forces there. In a nationally televised address this evening, French President Jacques Chirac announced the proposed deployment.

President JACQUES CHIRAC (France): (Through translator) My fellow citizens, attentive to the conditions in which our soldiers will be engaged and determined that France should take an active part in serving peace and stability, I believe at this time that the French soldiers can be deployed effectively. In this way, in a situation which everyone knows to be difficult, France will fully shoulder its responsibilities in Lebanon.

SIEGEL: Joining us now is Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations. Dominique Moisi, President Chirac says that the United Nations has met France's concerns. What exactly were France's concerns?

Mr. DOMINIQUE MOISI (French Institute of International Relations): That the rules of engagement were to be clear. That Lebanon in 2006 would not be a repetition of Bosnia in the last decade of the 20th Century. And apparently all concerns were met.

SIEGEL: Commentators on this side of the Atlantic saw this as a moment of calling France's bluff as to whether it really wanted to be a world leader. France was quick with idea of an international force and then criticized the idea. Was it seen that way in France in the end?

Mr. MOISI: Yes. I think if by the end of the day the French president is willing to send thousands of men and not hundreds of them, it is because the criticism coming from abroad met with the criticism coming from inside. I mean, what was our reputation? There was such a contrast between what we said initially and what for a week we were willing to do.

SIEGEL: Well, then this announcement would satisfy people who are concerned about France's reputation and its role in the world. Is it going to be popular, though, with people whose sons and husbands would be in the force that are going over to southern Lebanon?

Mr. MOISI: Well, this is a professional army and the French traditionally have been willing to take risks with their military and to take casualties, I would say, more easily than the United States of America. But there's a specific problem there, which is France may find ourselves - together with the U.N. force - caught between the fire of the Hezbollah and the fire of the Israelis. What happens when the French are killed or are killing a Muslim or a Jew? France is the country with the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Western Europe.

SIEGEL: The French Muslim community is by population far larger than the French Jewish community.

Mr. MOISI: Yeah, well, by a ratio of one to ten.

SIEGEL: Do you think - you said thousands rather than hundreds - 2,000 would be the lowest possible number of troops one could send and still say we're sending thousands rather than hundreds. Is this, in effect, the least that President Chirac could do and still be seen as contributing seriously to the international force?

Mr. MOISI: Well, it was the least France could do to claim to retain the commandment of that force. Below that number, the Italian claim would have been irresistible.

SIEGEL: Will the Italians, do you think, stand by their prior pledge to send 3,000 if they're not going to be in command of the operation?

Mr. MOISI: Probably not. Probably they are going to lower a little bit. But by the end of the day, there were criticisms in Italy and I don't think there was a consensus in Italy for the country to take the lead of the force. So somewhere it's slightly humiliating but it is also a relief.

SIEGEL: That's Dominique Moisi, who is senior advisor to the French Institute of International Relations. Dominique Moisi, thank you very much for talking with us.

Mr. MOISI: Thank you very much.

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