Press Conference In Egypt

In his latest visit to Egypt at the end of last year, and during a joint press conference with Egyptian president, Mubarak, French president Nicolas Sarkozy called on Syria to act using its influence to end the ongoing presedential crisis. The tone used by the French president angered the Syrian officials, and two days later the attitude backfired when Syria decided to cut communication channels regarding Lebanon with France.

The press conference started when Egyptian President Mubarak read slowly from a paper his speech welcoming the French guest, and as in any speech he emphesized on strong economic and political ties with the Republic of France and its president, and gave his compliments to the French effort in restoring peace and security in the middle east generally. However, Sarkozy was different, he was swift and straight forward in his speech. He did not read from the paper before him - maybe he had only some points written about what he want to talk about. He improvised from the way he was addressing the journalists. He showed big pride in the way his government using in dealing with the different issues world wide, and gave big gratittude and tribute to the efforts made by his foreign minister, Kouchner, in this regards.

Of course he focused on considering dialogue the only means in dealing with all issues concerning the middle east, and nothing but the dialogue between conflicting parties in that region. He rejected the concept of showing power and strength! Sarkozy reminds me of two invistegators trying to get confessions from someone in a police station; one enter the room where the detainee sitting alone, he start shouting, cursing, and sometimes beating that detainee. He exit the room to let the other investigator enters; the other one speaks calmly and softly. he put his hand on the detainee's shoulder to calm him down and put his fears into peace! Does Sarkozy and his ties with the United States (which he publicly proud of and vow to improve further) allow him to play the role of the second investegator?

Maybe, but at the same time we see some else in the tactics used by the French President, esepcially after his latest visits to countries bordering the Medeterranean region, in particular, north african countries. One thing for certain, Sarkozy want a new France, a new France in the region, a new and powerful France in the region. This has been clearly illustrated during his visits to North African countries. The aim is economic ties with these countries, and ensure that these countries can be a good candidate to be economically dependent on France. However, this time the tactics is different and the product is not food or military or goods; it is nuclear technology. During the press conference with Egyptian president Mubarak, the second or the third point the French president made in his speech was how Egypt can benefit from having French nuclear technology for peaceful means. Any observer realize that Egypt was not the first North African country to receive such an offer, Lybia is another example.

Interesting, though, that after decades of the west is depending on energy source from the east, the west, this time, is within the initial steps to be the source of energy for the east, among many other things! Will the future hold for us a new phenommenan?