The French Jewish leadership noted with satisfaction Tuesday the resignation of Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, a pro-Iraqi member of government who had thrown in his personal lot with the anti-war movement.
“His decision can only help clarify the French position,” said a spokesman for CRIF, the umbrella body of French Jewish organizations.
Chevenement, who opposed French participation in the U.S.-led war against Iraq, was promptly replaced by Pierre Joxe, the former interior minister, who is a strong supporter of President Francois Mitterrand.
The leader of a small group within the left wing of the French Socialist Party, Chevenement was always known for his anti-American, pro-Arab positions.
His associates in the National Assembly either voted against or abstained on the issue of involving French forces in the Persian Gulf crisis.
Chevenement himself was convinced that French participation in the U.S.-led coalition would cost France its “traditional friendship” with the Arab countries of North Africa and its many contracts in the rest of the Arab world.
The official Iraqi radio monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, reported his resignation only minutes after it was confirmed in Paris.
The departed defense minister was a founding member of the France-Iraq Friendship Association established in 1985.
In February 1990, he made an official visit to Baghdad to deliver a message to Saddam Hussein containing expressions of his personal support and of French friendship for Iraq.
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