Kerry flaunted his fluency in the language yesterday to deliver something of a love letter to France, one of the few world powers that seems likely to join the United States in any military action against Syria.
Speaking in French for eight minutes beneath the gold-painted cherubs of one of the Quai d’Orsay’s elegant salons, Kerry traced the history of US-French relations beginning from the American Revolution, while glossing over their many tiffs.
“Some of the very first lethal chemical weapons attacks happened here, on French soil, during the first World War and a large number of these victims of these deadly, indiscriminate weapons were young French soldiers, just 19 or 20 years old,” he said.
An IFOP poll published yesterday showed 68 per cent of French were against an intervention in Syria.
France took no part in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which it strongly opposed.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/kerry-delivers-a-love-letter-to-france-in-french-1.1520022