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'Magic Is Over' for US: French Foreign Minister

Posted Mar 13, 08 10:46 AM CDT in World 

(Newser) – For Bernard Kouchner, the outspoken French foreign minister, George W. Bush's successor might be able to restore some of America's lost global prestige, but after 8 years "the magic is over." In a conversation with the International Herald Tribune, Kouchner—one of France's most staunchly pro-American politicians—offered a blunt assessment of the US's battered reputation, lamenting, "It will never be as it was before."

The foreign minister also touched on troubles in the Mideast, saying that while he's not ready to sit down with Hamas, nevertheless "we have to talk with our enemies." Kouchner reiterated that faced with globalization, disease and climate change, "there is not just a new diplomacy, there is a new world." Kouchner founded Doctors Without Borders in the 1970s before going into politics and abandoned the Socialist Party in May when Nicolas Sarkozy offered him the foreign ministry.

Source International Herald Tribune

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French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner.   (AP Photo/Eric Feferberg, Pool)
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner gestures during a press conference at the presidential palace in Bogota, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008.   (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, left, arrives at the goverment palace in Caracas February 20, 2008.   (AP Photo/Howard Yanes)
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, right, welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the international donors conference in Paris, Monday, Dec. 17, 2007.   (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner addresses the media at the NATO foreign minister meeting in Brussels, Thursday March 6, 2008.   (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, left, talks to journalists, after talking with families awaiting relatives from Chad, at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, early Monday, Feb. 4, 2008.   (AP Photo/Michael Sawyer)
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Bernard Kouchner talks to Al Jazeera on French and American plans for further Iranian sanctions.   (AlJazeeraEnglish (YouTube))

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France • Nicolas Sarkozy • United States • diplomacy • Bernard Kouchner • French foreign minister


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