Target Centermass

The AP is reporting that France and Iraq will renew diplomatic ties shortly.

After a 13-year interruption, France and Iraq (news – web sites) intend to re-establish diplomatic relations within the next few days, the French Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi met Monday with Bernard Bajolet, France’s highest diplomatic representative in Iraq, and discussed restoration of ties that Saddam Hussein (news – web sites) broke off in 1991 during the Gulf War (news – web sites), a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“Mr. Allawi said he wanted to do it as fast as possible so that France can participate in the reconstruction of Iraq,” the spokesman said. “We welcomed that very positively.”

France, always there for the Francs. Nevertheless, this is a good move for the fledgling Iraqi government and its efforts to establish legitimacy.

Just back from my Independence Day weekend in Amarillo, Texas, and I find the Washington Post has stated the artillery rounds claimed by the Poles to have cyclosarin (see my entry on July 2) were not , in fact, chemical rounds.

Sixteen rocket warheads found last week in south-central Iraq by Polish troops did not contain deadly chemicals, a coalition spokesman said yesterday, but U.S. and Polish officials agreed that insurgents loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorist fighters are trying to buy such old weapons or purchase the services of Iraqi scientists who know how to make them.

The Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad said in a statement yesterday that the 122-millimeter rocket rounds, which initially showed traces of sarin, “were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals.” The statement came just hours after two senior Polish defense officials told reporters in Warsaw, based on preliminary reports, that the rocket rounds contained deadly sarin and that actions by the Polish unit in Iraq kept them from being purchased by militants fighting coalition forces.

I find it interesting that FoxNews and BBC, where I originally read the story, have printed no such correction. I also find it interesting that what the Washington Post and the Coalition Press Information Center refer to as “preliminary reports” were described by the Poles as “Laboratory tests …. done by U.S. experts” only hours earlier.

However I may wonder about both sides of the story, I felt I had to post it.