Sarkozy's courting of Syria is just part of a wider strategy to fill the economic and political vacuum left by US wariness
Matthias S Klein
guardian.co.uk, Thursday September 18
"....As Washington gives Damascus the "we will only talk to you once you have fulfilled all our demands" treatment, from his first day in office the French president has aimed to fill the gap. Sarkozy's goal, so it seems, is to expand France's regional role beyond its traditional sphere of influence, the Maghreb, regain a position in the Levant that it last held in the 1940s, and – this is a very new thing – even gain a foothold in the Gulf.....
During the recent visit to Syria, economic considerations again loomed large. French cement-maker Lafarge will become the biggest foreign investor, building two factories, Total will expand its oil business, and Airbus wants to sell planes.....
....It is the emergence of France as a major economic player which then translates into political influence. And this is happening as the US is discouraging its private sector from doing business in the region – either through direct bans or as a side-effect of its foreign policy. Sarkozy is capitalising on the American weakness and has quickly grasped the opportunity to make France into a great power in the Middle East again.....
The era of the Gulf as an "Anglosphere" may be coming to an end. Already Dubai's residents talk about hearing a lot of French spoken, something that simply never happened before. And soon it won't just be businesspeople – from next year onwards, France will station up to 500 soldiers in a permanent military base to be located in the Abu Dhabi emirate and in Qatar, right next to one of the biggest US military bases in the region."
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