Niger Regime Slams France for Backing Ousted Bazoum

Supporters of Niger's National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) display a French national flag with a x-mark on during a protest outside Niger and French airbase in Niamey on September 1, 2023 to demand the departure of the French army from Niger. (Photo by AFP)
Supporters of Niger's National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) display a French national flag with a x-mark on during a protest outside Niger and French airbase in Niamey on September 1, 2023 to demand the departure of the French army from Niger. (Photo by AFP)
TT

Niger Regime Slams France for Backing Ousted Bazoum

Supporters of Niger's National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) display a French national flag with a x-mark on during a protest outside Niger and French airbase in Niamey on September 1, 2023 to demand the departure of the French army from Niger. (Photo by AFP)
Supporters of Niger's National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) display a French national flag with a x-mark on during a protest outside Niger and French airbase in Niamey on September 1, 2023 to demand the departure of the French army from Niger. (Photo by AFP)

Niger's military regime fired a new verbal broadside at France on Friday, accusing Paris of "blatant interference" by backing the country's ousted president as protestors rallied near a French base outside the capital Niamey.

President Mohamed Bazoum, a French ally whose election in 2021 had stoked hopes of stability in the troubled country, was detained on July 26 by members of his guard.

Relations with France, the country's former colonial power and ally in its fight against militants, went swiftly downhill after Paris stood by Bazoum.

Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron in support of Bazoum "constitute further blatant interference in Niger's domestic affairs," regime spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane said in a statement read on nationwide TV.

The Sahel state is also embroiled in a standoff with the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has threatened to intervene militarily if diplomatic pressure to return the elected Bazoum to office fails.

On Monday, Macron said, "I call on all the states in the region to adopt a responsible policy."

France, he said, "supports (ECOWAS') diplomatic action and, when it so decides, (its) military" action, he said, describing this as "a partnership approach."

On Friday, Macron paid further tribute to Bazoum, praising his "commitment, action and courage".

He dismissed Niger's rulers as having "no legitimacy" and insisted France would make its decisions with regard to Niger "on the basis of exchanges with President Bazoum".

Abdramane said, "Mr. Macron's comments and his unceasing efforts in favor of an invasion of Niger aim at perpetuating a neo-colonial operation against the Nigerien people, who ask for nothing more than to decide its own destiny for itself."

Abdramane said Niger's "differences" with France "do not touch on the relationship between our peoples, or on individuals, but on the relevance of the French military presence in Niger."

On August 3, the regime denounced military agreements with France, a move that Paris has ignored on the grounds of legitimacy.

The agreements cover different timeframes, although one of them dating from 2012 was set to expire within a month, according to military leaders.

France has around 1,500 troops in Niger, many of them stationed at an airbase near the capital, who are deployed to help fight a bloody insurgency.

Thousands of people on Friday gathered outside the base to demand the troops leave.

The three-day "sit-in" has been organized by the M62, a coalition of civil groups opposed to the French military presence in Niger.

"France must leave and she will leave, because Niger is not her home," said an M62 leader, Falma Taya.



France, Israel at Loggerheads after French Officials Briefly Arrested in Jerusalem

Macron and Netanyahu (illustrative). (photo credit: Bertrand Guay/Reuters, Canva, REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool)
Macron and Netanyahu (illustrative). (photo credit: Bertrand Guay/Reuters, Canva, REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool)
TT

France, Israel at Loggerheads after French Officials Briefly Arrested in Jerusalem

Macron and Netanyahu (illustrative). (photo credit: Bertrand Guay/Reuters, Canva, REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool)
Macron and Netanyahu (illustrative). (photo credit: Bertrand Guay/Reuters, Canva, REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool)

France accused Israel on Thursday of harming bilateral ties after Israeli security forces entered a holy site under French administration in Jerusalem and briefly detained two French officials with diplomatic status.
The incident occurred as French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the compound of The Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives. The site, one of four administered by France in Jerusalem, is under Paris' responsibility and deemed part of France, said Reuters.
French diplomatic sources said Israeli security had been told not to enter before Barrot's visit.
However, they did so and as a consequence Barrot refused to enter the compound, called Eleona in French, while they were present. Two French security officials were then briefly arrested, the sources said, adding that the Israelis were aware the two were from the consulate and had diplomatic status.
Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement that an argument arose between the Israeli security forces and two French security guards. They were released immediately after they identified themselves as diplomats, it said.
The dispute casts a shadow over diplomatic relations that are already strained over Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
"This violation of the integrity of a site under French responsibility risks undermining the ties I had come to nurture with Israel at a time when we all need to move forward the region on the path to peace", a visibly angry Barrot told reporters outside the building.
Israel's foreign ministry said that every visiting foreign leader is accompanied by its security personnel, a point that had been "clarified in advance in the preparatory dialogue with the French Embassy in Israel."
A French diplomatic source said the Israeli authorities were disseminating "false allegations" and that a line had not yet been drawn under the incident.
The Israeli ambassador to Paris will be summoned in the coming days, the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
Diplomatic relations between France and Israel have worsened since President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to the supply to Israel of offensive weapons used in Gaza. The French government also attempted to ban Israeli weapons' firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris and has become increasingly uneasy over Israel's conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
French officials have repeatedly said that Paris is committed to Israel's security and that its military helped defend Israel amid Iranian missile attacks earlier this year.
Barrot's trip had aimed to press Israel to engage diplomatically to end the conflicts in the region now that the US presidential election is over.
It was not the first time that tensions have arisen surrounding France's historic holdings in the city.
In 2020, Macron lost his temper when visiting the Church of St. Anne, another site under French administration, demanding Israeli security personnel leave the Jerusalem basilica.
A similar incident took place in 1996 involving France's then-president Jacques Chirac, who saw his treatment by Israeli security as a "provocation".