France directs EU foreign policy against Turkey
France has been throwing a “sustained tantrum”
against Turkey for months over its influence in the eastern Mediterranean and
Libya, analyst Muhammad Hussein wrote in Middle East Monitor on Wednesday.
“Over the past year in particular, France has led
the way in directing the European Union’s opposition to Turkey’s regional
interests and foreign policy initiatives,” Hussein said.
“This was observed clearly in its condemnation of
Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in north-east Syria last October, and again
with Ankara’s military and political support for the U.N.-backed Government of
National Accord (GNA) in Libya.”
The Libyan conflict has been particularly triggering
for France, who has said Turkey is playing a “criminal” role in the country
through its military support for the GNA.
Hussein said that Ankara’s strained relationship
with Paris - a NATO ally - is bad news for its relations with Europe as a
whole, as France often continues to guide the bloc’s direction and policy.
“It is not only France that Turkey is upsetting;
there is also the potential to damage relations with the whole continent,
because France remains one of the most powerful and influential players within
the EU,” he said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has
arranged a meeting with his EU counterparts on 13 July, raising the possibility
of sanctions being imposed on Ankara.
“France has made the EU toe the line according to
its own national interests, with Turkey the main target,” Hussein said. “The
rest of Europe is either unwilling or unable to rein France in, despite the
disadvantages that come with opposing Turkey which is, after all, both
strategically and politically, as well as militarily, arguably the main player
in the region.”
