The diplomatic crisis between France and the United States escalated on Tuesday after the US ambassador to Paris, Charles Kushner, ignored an official summons from the French Foreign Ministry.
France’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the senior American representative is required to explain his absence, and until he does so, he will be denied access to senior figures in the French government.
According to a report by the Associated Press, French authorities summoned Kushner, father of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and adviser of US President Donald Trump, to a meeting scheduled for Monday evening. Diplomatic sources in France confirmed that the ambassador chose not to attend the meeting.
US officials say far-right activist death caused by 'violent radical leftism'
The summons followed a series of statements issued by the US State Department and the US Embassy in Paris after the death of Quentin Deranque, a French far-right activist who was beaten to death last week in the city of Lyon.
US officials described the incident as “terrorism,” claimed that “violent radical leftism is on the rise,” and warned of a threat to public security. In Paris, officials expressed anger over what they viewed as interference in internal affairs, and Barrot made clear that France rejects any “political exploitation” of the tragedy, stressing that his country “will not accept moral lectures on violence from the international reactionary movement.”
In an interview given earlier on Tuesday to the public broadcaster France Info, Barrot described Kushner’s failure to appear as a “surprise” that constitutes a blatant breach of accepted diplomatic protocol. Barrot warned that the move would have practical consequences for the ambassador’s work, saying, “This will, naturally, affect his ability to carry out his mission in our country.”
Barrot concluded with a clear warning regarding Kushner’s continued engagement with local authorities, “When those explanations are provided, then, naturally, the US ambassador to France will regain access to members of the French government.”