France submits to a discreet act of contrition to lift the American blockade against its new ambassador in Washington

Six weeks of behind-the-scenes tension between Paris and Washington ended with a mea culpa from French diplomacy, released through gritted teeth. In a press release “on the promotion and defense of human rights”published on the evening of Friday September 11, the permanent mission of France to the UN in Geneva “regret” his own message, published on X on July 25.

At the heart of summer, she was moved by the United States’ vote against the renewal of the mandate of Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The United States was once a beacon of human rights. This is no longer the case. Today, they find themselves alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali and Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to them”then wrote the French representation.

A very undiplomatic message – 2.9 million views – which illustrated the emotion caused by the American positioning, breaking with its historical commitments. The State Department, very irritated, decided in response to block the arrival of the new French ambassador to Washington. Appointed at the end of June, Aurélien Lechevallier, chief of staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, was to succeed Laurent Bili. But the United States expressed its bad mood by freezing the promotion’s approval. In Paris, we even wondered about the possible persistence of an American refusal, targeting a diplomat very close to Emmanuel Macron, of whom he was a fellow student at the ENA.

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