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French military bases in Africa will now self-identify as schools

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Emmanuel Macron wants to rebrand Paris’ presence in its former colonies as cultural and economic projects

After France was dumped by some of its former colonies in Africa in favor of new partners, like Russia and China, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a new plan in an obvious effort to have an excuse to keep hanging out in the hope of winning hearts and minds.

How exactly does Macron plan on doing that? Certainly not by “taking people for imbeciles”, as he said on February 28 while announcing his new African strategy ahead of a tour of the continent this week. “We aren’t going to do common good,” Macron stated, underscoring that France clearly has interests and isn’t going to pretend otherwise. After a remark like that, one might be lulled into believing that everything else that he said would be equally straightforward.

That’s not exactly the case. Rather, Macron is just announcing a different manipulation tactic – because Washington’s model of deploying military shock and awe on resource-rich countries in the hope of ultimately translating it into business deals apparently isn’t getting the job done. Even worse, the West is now worried about being outdone on the security and economic front by Russia and China. And for all the patronizing attempts to warn African countries to avoid dealing with them — most recently by Western officials at the Munich Security Conference — it turns out that treating African leaders like they don’t know what’s in their own best interests isn’t working, either.

The big question in the wake of Mali giving the boot to France’s years-long “counter-terrorism” mission, leading to an exit of the country’s armed forces from the region, was how Paris would justify sticking around. In 2021, there were over 19,000 deaths related to Islamist violence, more than in 2015, when Boko Haram was at its strongest, in the Sahel – the region that France ostensibly sought to stabilize.

Macron outlines new Africa strategy

So France was fired. For all its time in the region, Paris wasn’t able to parlay its security footprint into the kind of economic and resource deals that it wanted on behalf of both itself and resource-poor Europe.

Macron tipped his hat early in his speech by evoking the Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, as a sort of anchor for the Franco-African cooperation that he’s introducing. The controversial currency, used in 14 African countries and printed in France, is pegged to the Euro. Some consider it a symbol of colonialism and a lack of sovereignty, while the Western establishment generally considers it a source of stability for these countries that attract investment.

Back in 2019 when she was in opposition, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni called it the “colonial currency” to which France “applies seigniorage and by virtue of which it exploits the resources of these nations.” Macron would now like to build on that, s’il vous plaît.

To that end, the French President has a new idea that involves Africans forgetting France’s military presence on the continent. Its bases in Africa are now going to be co-managed with Africans and some will be rebranded “academies”, he said. Apparently, in today’s Western world, if an army base wants to self-identify as a school, that’s now entirely its right.

The move to soften France’s image in Africa after having overseen the proliferation of jihadists under its counter-terrorism missions looks a lot like the Biden administration’s new PR efforts aimed at Africa. “Jill Biden’s visit to Namibia was a big hit with scores of giddy children who crowded around her Thursday as she handed out boxes of White House M&Ms after visiting an organization that gets US support for programs that teach young adults about HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence,” the Associated Press reported on February 23.

NATO flag defaced as ‘thousands’ rally in Paris

Macron is also playing up new French-led cooperative initiatives for Africa in culture, sports, health, digital technology, and education. All backed by a European team, he said — in case there were any doubts as to the European Union using France to wedge open the door to resource heaven. Macron also repeatedly mentioned partnerships with African civil society. Translation: French cash for NGO “influencers”. That’s generally called a “paid partnership” on social media, and the ethical protocol is to disclose that funding relationship. What are the odds that the French-backed NGOs will be doing the same when attempting to influence their fellow citizens?

Macron spoke of France’s network of African diaspora, able to open the doors to increased business cooperation in their countries of origin. It sounded like he was planning to just swoop in and rain cash on African enterprise. But how much of that, in reality, will end up benefiting French companies and their shareholders?

One would think that Macron has discovered “soft power”, and figures that seducing Africans with football, French art, French-style philosophical debate, and French rap will give France faster access to the continent’s riches than pretending to do something useful with guns.

Africa shouldn’t be reduced to a terrain of competition, Macron said, now that France has been eliminated from that particular competition and sent home. “The flaw of France is that it’s too divided, too hard to read and not concrete enough,” he added. If Africans were hoping that France would go home and do some soul searching before attempting a return, they might be disappointed to learn that Macron places much of the blame for the failure to implement his grand vision for Africa on the contradictory debate that French democracy still allows — albeit barely. But now that his failures self-identify as successes, he’s circling back around for another go.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of TSFT.

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Israeli president comments on Lebanon pager attacks

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Lebanon-based Hezbollah has “many enemies,” while Israel is only “defending itself,” President Isaac Herzog has said

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has provided ambiguous comments on the alleged involvement of West Jerusalem in the mass detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon last week.

Herzog made the remarks while speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, as the host grilled the president on the apparently indiscriminate nature of the attacks that killed at least 37, including two children, and injured some 3,000.

“I reject out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation,” Herzog stated.

Asked whether Israel denies its involvement altogether or blames any other party for the attacks, the president refrained from doing so, while accusing Hezbollah of “destroying Lebanon” in the first place.

“I did not allude to anything except saying that there are many enemies of Hezbollah out there, quite a few these days. Hezbollah has been choking Lebanon, destroying Lebanon, creating havoc in Lebanon again and again and again. We are here simply to defend ourselves. That’s all we do,” he stated.

Israel planned pager attacks for 15 years – ABC News

Israeli intelligence is widely suspected as being behind the attacks, which have been roundly criticized globally. The explosives were presumably planted in the devices during manufacturing and then activated remotely.

UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk, for instance, called the incident “shocking” and said that it had unleashed profound “fear and terror.”

“Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law,” he stated.

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Ukraine won’t join NATO anytime soon – Scholz

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The German chancellor explained that Kiev doesn’t meet some of the criteria for membership in the US-led military bloc

Ukraine will most likely not be able to become a NATO member state in the foreseeable future as it does not meet a number of requirements for admission yet, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said. Earlier this month, the head of the US-led military bloc, Jens Stoltenberg, declared that all member states had agreed to welcome Kiev, but only if and when it vanquished Moscow’s forces.

In an interview with Germany’s Die Welt published on Monday, Scholz assessed that, for the time being, Ukraine’s Western backers should focus on helping the country “defend its land.” In the future, security guarantees for Kiev will also need to be discussed.

“But we are a long way away from there,” he added.

When asked whether he would theoretically support Ukraine’s accession to NATO after its military conflict with Russia was over, the chancellor claimed that it was “clear to everyone that this doesn’t stand on the agenda anytime soon.”

Ukraine can’t join NATO now – member state’s president

One of the reasons for that, according to Scholz, is that “there is a whole range of requirements belonging to NATO’s criteria that Ukraine can’t fulfill at present.”

Earlier this month, dpa news agency, citing a YouGov poll, reported that some 54% of Germans oppose the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, with only 27% in favor.

Meanwhile, also this month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Washington Post that “all NATO allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance.” He, however, refused to offer any timeline for this.

According to the official, the US-led military bloc is currently helping Kiev “transition from Soviet-era equipment, doctrines and standards” and become “interoperable with NATO forces.”

In April, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that most Europeans would disapprove if NATO did not extend a “well-deserved invitation” to join the alliance. The Ukrainian leadership made it clear that it expected to see progress on the issue during an upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania in July.

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US to bolster weapons sales

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The State Department wants to speed up military shipments by embracing a more flexible approach encompassing entire sales regions

The US State Department is seeking to expedite arms sales to its foreign allies and partners amid a new “age of heightened strategic competition” and soaring global tensions, according to a new ten-point plan released on Thursday.

Although each year between 2019 and 2022 the US government authorized weapons sales and training to the tune of $45.8 billion on average, “the time has come to reassess and adapt security cooperation to meet new and emerging challenges,” the State Department explained, pointing to the ongoing Ukraine conflict and tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

According to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday, the new program comes as the State Department scrambles to rectify delays in sales to foreign militaries, caused by a “risk-averse and sluggish” system.

These issues have resulted in fears that some of America’s partners could start “shopping for arms from some of America’s adversaries, such as Russia and China,” the WSJ wrote, citing unnamed US officials.

Pentagon made $3 billion ‘error’ in Ukraine aid – Reuters

As part of its plan, the department seeks in particular to “save time on the policy approval process” by anticipating the demands of Washington’s international partners based on the prior requirements of their regional neighbors. Citing the officials, the WSJ noted that the reform intends to make the system more flexible by moving away from selling American weapons on a case-by-case basis.

Another point of the plan is to change the State Department’s approach to notifying Congress, by “prioritizing consultations on critical potential arms transfers” and sharpening policies in the field of exporting US drones abroad.

Last year, as global tensions soared amid the Ukraine conflict and the ‘Taiwan’ stand-off between Beijing and Washington, US foreign military sales to other governments skyrocketed by 49%, reaching some $205 billion, according to the State Department.

The US also emerged as the main source of weapons for Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia, having committed some $37 billion in security assistance to Kiev. In recent months, however, US media have reported that Washington was running low on several types of weapons and ammunition as the military industry was struggling to keep up with demand.

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