French Reject Idea of Joint Gulf Naval Patrol
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PARIS — French External Relations Minister Jean-Bernard Raimond on Tuesday rejected the idea of forming a multinational naval force to protect merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf.
Raimond’s statement during a debate before the National Assembly was the first official French response to President Reagan’s plan to protect oil shipping in the gulf.
Raimond called the Iran-Iraq War “the most devastating conflict our world has known since World War II and one that gravely and directly menaces the security and stability of the gulf region.”
But, he said, France should avoid anything that upsets the status quo, especially any action that might be construed by the belligerents as foreign intervention.
Raimond added that a joint patrol of the gulf could jeopardize the lives of six French hostages being held in Lebanon.
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