DUBAI: French President Emmanuel Macron promised on Thursday that the West and its partners will “completely win” over the Daesh group in the coming weeks, applauding the help offered by the UAE in the battle against extremism.
After focusing the day before on cultural ties between France and the UAE with the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Macron on Thursday toured a nearby French naval base and discussed the military cooperation between the two nations.
“We have won in Raqqa and in the coming weeks, the coming months, I believe it strongly, we will completely win on the military level in the Iraqi-Syrian zone,” Macron said, referring to the one-time self-described capital of Daesh.
“France’s military capacity is at the heart of my ambitions for our country,” he added.
Macron visited the Camp Peace naval base at Abu Dhabi’s Port Zayed, which sits just across the waters of the Arabian Gulf from the new Louvre Abu Dhabi, which he helped inaugurate on Wednesday night. The museum’s saltshaker-like dome sits in sight of the base.
A military band played “La Marseillaise” and an honor guard met Macron before he boarded and walked through the French frigate Jean Bart.
The French president later addressed gathered sailors there, noting their work to both battle extremists and stop smugglers and piracy in the Arabian Gulf and surrounding waters.
The French naval base opened in 2009, a reflection of France’s deepening military cooperation with the UAE. It also stations troops and planes at Al-Dhafra Air Base, home to some of the 5,000 American troops stationed in the country.
Culturally, Abu Dhabi agreed to pay France $525 million for the use of the “Louvre” name for the next 30 years and six months for its new museum, plus another $750 million to hire French managers to oversee the 300 loaned works of art. A center at Paris’ Louvre now bears the name of the late UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, which was also part of the deal.
While Macron toured the naval base, his wife Brigitte visited Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, its gleaming white marble minarets and walls shining brightly in the desert sun. Out of respect, she covered her head with a brown, white and black scarf with an Arabic-inspired design while touring the mosque, walking across its carpeting with her bare feet.
Macron then traveled to Dubai and met with ruling Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who also serves as the UAE’s vice president and prime minister. Sheikh Mohammed also had attended the Louvre Abu Dhabi opening on Wednesday.
The French president then attended an economic forum, where he offered a speech in English applauding the Emirates’ efforts in fighting those “betraying” Islam through both military might, as well as its cultural offerings.
“Our common challenge today is how to defend light, tolerance and respect of each other,” Macron said. “That’s the challenge of our generation.”
Macron: West, partners will ‘completely win’ over Daesh in coming weeks
Macron: West, partners will ‘completely win’ over Daesh in coming weeks
Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue
- Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue
MILAN: Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.
The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of US agents in Italy.
Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
The demonstration coincided with US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.
He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the US delegation.
US Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
“Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
“They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.
Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”
The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in US diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
