France’s Ambassador ‘Knows How to Throw an Elbow’

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/us/politics/frances-ambassador-knows-how-to-throw-an-elbow.html

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WASHINGTON — In the hours after the terrorist attacks in Paris left 130 dead, Gérard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, thanked all Americans for their solidarity except for one: Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who pointedly said that the mass shootings had occurred in “one of the toughest gun control countries in the world.”

Mr. Araud promptly pronounced Mr. Trump a “vulture” on Twitter. “This message is repugnant in its lack of any human decency,” he told his 27,500 followers.

Mr. Araud deleted the post within an hour, deciding, he later said, that it was not the time for such sparring. But he makes no apology for the sentiment or the way he expressed it — the latest example of how France’s top diplomat in the United States relishes tossing out protocol when the interests of his country are at stake.

“I’m a fighter, which for an ambassador is unusual, so I retaliated,” Mr. Araud said this week during an interview in the Winter Salon of the grand Tudor Revival mansion that is his residence in Washington. “I did it because it was just at the moment of the attack, so I was totally disgusted. I’m absolutely not ashamed of what I said.”

Mr. Araud, 62, the first openly gay French ambassador to Washington and quintessentially French down to his (sterling silver) cuff links, relishes showing off his country’s cuisine and culture at parties that bring together the city’s top politicians, academics, business leaders, artists and writers. But he is the antithesis of a buttoned-up diplomat issuing scripted statements of harmony.

Instead he is known as an effective and sometimes combative advocate for France.

“He’s a very talented, intelligent ambassador who serves his country well, but he knows how to throw an elbow,” an Obama administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about Mr. Araud. “On occasion, that has caused brief moments of friction.”

He can be a strong negotiator, as was the case during intensive talks earlier this year between Iran and six world powers, including the United States and France, on a deal to lift sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbing its nuclear program. Mr. Araud criticized the emerging agreement, suggesting it was not tough enough, and publicly questioned whether a deadline at the end of June for striking it was binding. His words undercut what American negotiators regarded as critical leverage at the most sensitive of moments.

“That was directly contrary to what we wanted to do, and it was unhelpful,” said Philip Gordon, who until March was the top Middle East official at the National Security Council. But in an era when the United States and France have mostly common interests and have been aligned on strategic issues, he added, the bluntness can also be an asset.

“He is refreshingly candid, and I stress ‘refreshing,’ because often diplomats can be quite cautious and ultra-diplomatic,” Mr. Gordon said. “I don’t think anyone would say that about Gérard.”

A former French ambassador to Israel, Mr. Araud’s tenure in Washington has been punctuated by tragedy. He had been in the post only four months when masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.

It was after that January attack that Mr. Trump originally sent the tweet about France’s gun control laws, a message that was recycled in the wake of this month’s carnage, provoking Mr. Araud’s irate response. (Mr. Trump repeated the point after the latest attacks, during a speech Nov. 14 in Beaumont, Texas.)

When he left his post as his country’s ambassador to the United Nations to come to Washington, Mr. Araud worried on Twitter that his new assignment would compel him to “be much more restrained.” Jeb Bush campaign officials might now see that as a needless concern.

Last month when Mr. Bush remarked during a Republican presidential debate that the Senate’s three-day schedule was akin to a “French workweek,” Mr. Araud was quick with a retort.

“A French workweek of 3 days? No but a pregnancy paid leave of 16 weeks yes! And proud of it,” he tweeted, later adding statistics pinpointing the French average of 39.6 hours per week of work. He called Mr. Bush’s assertions “bombastic nonsense.”

Mr. Araud — in between security briefings, receiving condolences for the victims, appearing in television interviews to talk about France’s response to the attacks and planning for a hastily scheduled visit to the White House on Tuesday by President François Hollande of France — has also taken time over the past week to comment on People magazine’s selection of David Beckham as the sexiest man alive.

“The only reason I see that I didn’t make it is that he has more tattoos than me,” he said on Twitter.

At his residence in the Kalorama neighborhood of Northwest Washington, where classical portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette and the Count de Rochambeau mingle with modern canvases and photographs by his longtime partner, Pascal Blondeau, Mr. Araud said being outspoken on Twitter is part of being an effective ambassador in 2015.

“It’s in a way trying to reach more people, and also different people, and I try to do it in an engaging way,” said Mr. Araud, who usually tweets from his car — he has a driver — or during the 15 minutes before he goes to sleep each evening.

“I’m not worried about the consequence,” he added, noting that he has long said the posting to Washington will be his last.

He has little to lose, having risen to the highest echelons of French diplomacy. At the United Nations, where he served from 2009 to 2014, he embodied France’s outsized influence as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, using the perch to cudgel and shame.

He pushed for a vote on a measure to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, knowing Russia would veto it, which was exactly the point — to isolate the Kremlin. He goaded the United States to support an expensive peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, where no country but France has any strategic interest.

As a top foreign ministry official in Paris from 2006 to 2009, Mr. Araud was the lead negotiator on Iran for France, leaning on Russia to support new sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear activity, something Moscow resisted but ultimately backed.

“What’s really special about him is he’s passionate, and in the sometimes dry world of diplomacy, where everyone’s emotions are in check, Gérard can get passionate in a meeting, and he can get angry, and it’s very effective,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department official in the George W. Bush administration who coordinated with Mr. Araud and officials from Britain, Germany, China and Russia in the nuclear effort. “He was a tough inside player in holding that coalition together.”

In the interview, Mr. Araud said he took no pleasure in offending his American counterparts or other colleagues, whether through a tweet or in the course of diplomatic maneuvering.

“If I ever did it,” Mr. Araud said with a faint smile, “it was a mistake of my side, you know.”