Global Policy Forum

By Brian Knowlton

French officials responded brusquely Wednesday to an assertion by Secretary of State Colin Powell that France would be made to suffer for its opposition to the war in Iraq. Dominique de Villepin, Powell's French counterpart, sounded a defiant tone in insisting that France would not be bowed by American pressure or threats.

‘‘Throughout the Iraq crisis, France, along with a very large majority of the international community, acted in conformity with its convictions and its principles to defend international law,'' Villepin said during a trip to Turkey. ‘‘It will continue to do so in all circumstances.'' Powell's comment Tuesday, during a television interview, came a day after a White House meeting aimed at finding ways to punish France, which led the opposition to the United States-led military attack against Iraq and thwarted Washington's attempt to win United Nations support to the move. Participants in the meeting reportedly considered actions ranging from lessening French influence in NATO to excluding the French from some international forums. ‘‘They are trying to find ways to create alternative mechanisms for dealing with the French, or rather without them, and not just at NATO,'' Agence France-Presse quoted a senior American official as saying.

The meeting reportedly was chaired by Stephen Hadley, deputy to the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the participants included deputies representing Vice President Dick Cheney's office, the Pentagon and the State Department. The vice president's office, backed by the Defense Department, was said to have been particularly vocal in pushing for punitive measures against France. There were indications that Powell, who wants French cooperation in the reconstruction of Iraq, was going along with talk of sanctions in order to help set limits to something he had been unable to block. When asked during the television interview whether France would face consequences over Iraq, Powell replied simply, ‘‘Yes.'' He then added, ‘‘We have to look at all aspects of our relationship with France in light of this.'' Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said Wednesday that it was no secret that relations between Washington and Paris had been strained. Of Powell's comment, he said, ‘‘The real surprise would have been if he'd said ‘no.'''

While the ties have been ‘‘complicated,'' Fleischer said, President George W. Bush ‘‘continues to believe that because of our common values,'' the alliance between the two countries will continue. Powell planned to phone Villepin to discuss possible American measures, according to a State Department official quoted by AFP. ‘‘It's more of a courtesy call so the French aren't left guessing,'' the official said. It was not the first time Powell had said that Paris might pay a price for opposing the United States' position on Iraq. On March 9, after France threatened to veto any United Nations resolution authorizing a war against Iraq, Powell said that such a move would ‘‘have a serious effect on bilateral relations, at least in the short term.''

But his comments Tuesday were the first such affirmation since the war wound down, and it appeared to counter suggestions that the two sides might now forge a pragmatic relationship, however cool and businesslike, to permit necessary cooperation. Some analysts said that while administration frustration with France was understandable from Washington's viewpoint, a punitive response might be shortsighted, given the countries' complex range of common interests.

Jeremy Shapiro, associate director of the Center for the United States and France, at the Brookings Institution, said that the administration's approach appeared to be ‘‘a policy more of revenge and retaliation than of working toward the future.'' Last week, President Jacques Chirac of France telephoned President Bush — their first talk in two months — in what was seen as a clearly conciliatory gesture; and earlier this week, France, in a move that at first blush appeared to be welcomed by the United States, conditionally supported an end to United Nations sanctions on Iraq.

The comments by Powell seemed to show that Washington was hardly appeased. Some in the administration are disdainful of what they see as a broader effort by Chirac to limit, or supplant, American power. According to one account of the White House meeting, participants concluded that punishing France in significant ways without harming United States interests might not be easy. But the American-French tensions have raised concerns in Europe that tit-for-tat sanctions might spill over. In Brussels, a spokeswoman for the European Commission noted that rules of international relations limited the ways Washington could express its irritation. ‘‘I am sure that Colin Powell was not implying that any of those rules would be broken,'' said the spokeswoman, Emma Udwin.

Powell's comments provoked angry responses from some in France. Jack Lang, a former culture minister, called the possibility of U.S. sanctions ‘‘scandalous.'' ‘‘The only government that might deserve sanctions,'' he said, ‘‘is the Bush government, which gravely violated international legality by organizing a military expedition without Security Council authorization.''

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