Sarkozy may remove French troops from Afghanistan

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy outlined his stance on key foreign policy issues Thursday, saying that if elected he would contemplate pulling France's troops out of Afghanistan. He also denounced the United States' refusal to cap carbon emissions and proposed taxing imports from China because it too has refused to limit greenhouse gases. Sarkozy, the governing conservatives' candidate, said he supported outgoing President Jacques Chirac's decision to pull 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan late last year. He said he would continue that policy if elected in the May 6 runoff vote. "The long-term presence of French troops in that part of the world does not look definitive to me," he said in an interview with France-2 television. Some 1,100 French soldiers are currently part of the at least 30,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan.