France in talks to resume selling arms to Baghdad

FRANCE, which famously opposed the Iraq war, is in talks to resume sales of military equipment to Baghdad for the first time in nearly two decades, French and Iraqi officials say.

This means that France, a huge global arms vendor and once a key supplier to ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, is manoeuvring back into a lucrative military market the US has dominated since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The officials say French merchandise now on offer includes helicopters and spare parts for weaponry that France sold Iraq back in the 1980s.

It’s not about “replacing the Americans, or rejecting them”, Jawad Bashara, spokesman for the Iraqi Embassy in France, said yesterday. “Iraq needs to renew its military capacity, and needs to have several arms suppliers, not just one state.”