USA: U.S.SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFLED HOLD TALKS WITH FRENCH DEFENCE MINISTER MICHELE ALLIOT-MARIE AT THE PENTAGON

Record ID: 862587

  • Title: USA: U.S.SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFLED HOLD TALKS WITH FRENCH DEFENCE MINISTER MICHELE ALLIOT-MARIE AT THE PENTAGON
  • Date: 15th January 2004
  • Summary: (U1) THE PENTAGON, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 15, 2004) (REUTERS) LV PULL IN SV CAR CARRYING FRENCH MINISTER OF DEFENSE MICHELE ALLIOT-MARIE ARRIVING AT PENTAGON/ALLIOT-MARIE BEING GREETED BY US SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD AND BEING ESCORTED INTO PENTAGON
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: THE PENTAGON, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAADRTU4LGA7HPEJB8QA8W19AAN
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: France and Washington looking for thaw in frosty relations with Pentagon meeting.
    With relations between the United States and France still frosty over the war on Iraq, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfled held talks with French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie at the Pentagon Thursday (January 15).
    Paris and Washington have been at loggerheads since Paris refused to support the war to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
    Alliot-Marie's visit is her first since the US-led invasion in March. She was expected to discuss bilateral defence relations with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
    The visit comes the same day the French Foreign Ministry said French officials will soon visit the six French nationals held as "enemy combatants" at the United States military base in Guantanamo Bay.
    The six, arrested in Afghanistan in early 2002, are among about 660 suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members held there without the normal protections afforded prisoners of war under international law.
    France has kept a relatively low public profile on the fate of its nationals held at the base in Cuba, although French officials flew there twice in early 2002 and have kept up contact ever since.
    In November France demanded precise information from the United States on why the six were detained and on what charges.
    Lawyers for four of the French prisoners have asked the United Nations to investigate evidence they were being subjected to psychological torture, citing accounts that they suffer periods of solitary confinement and lack of exercise.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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