“Behind the scenes of a liberation”. It is a title that we find at the same time on the front page of Le Figaro and on the front page of Liberation exactly when Le Monde prefers to show “the end of the ordeal for Sophie Pétronin”. Because, of course, the newspapers are returning to the release of this 75-year-old French humanitarian, Thursday night after nearly four years of captivity in Mali.
A liberation, yes, and “a lot of questions” according to Le Parisien Today in France. The first of them on Emmanuel Macron’s position yesterday when he received ex-hostages at Villacoublay airport. “In front of the assembled journalists, we can read, a microphone was installed” to an address, but eventually “the president” changes his mind and returns to Paris “without a word. So “modesty or caution?” Asks the newspaper, especially in light of the new “controversy” about the second question, namely Sophie Pétronin’s position.
At RFI [oui on est cité dans quasiment tous les journaux ce matin]. At RFI, the newspaper resumes, Sophie Pétronin has “ambiguous remarks about her prisoners”. She does not see them as jihadists, but speaks of “armed opposition groups”. She claims to be Muslim and says her name is no longer Sophie but Mariam. To the point that a government adviser is still wondering, according to Le Parisien, “has she not changed?”
“Foolproof resilience“
Liberation, on the other hand, is much milder towards Sophie Pétronin. “What a strange and disturbing wave of hatred” condemns the article. “Rarely has a hostage release been so ruined,” “social networks [ont déversé] barrels of insults ”. Libé prefers to see here “an infallible resilience” on the part of Sophie Pétronin. And the everyday especially prefers to go behind the scenes of what it calls “a release under high conditions”.
Le Figaro speaks of a “costly release”, especially given the number of prisoners replaced. “At least 200 jihadists,” Le Figaro recalls. Many are just “other knives” he notes, but there are also “familiar names” involved in attacks. The liberation goes on: the newspaper claims to have got its hands on the list of detainees detained … And “among them, he confirms, are small celebrities in the Sahelian jihad”. He quotes, for example, as Le Monde already yesterday, “the Mauritanian Fawaz Ould Ahmed, alias” Ibrahim 10 “, lieutenant of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the leader of Al-Mourabitoune”. Libé then provides a number of other identities and pedigrees that are actually not very reassuring.
“Nagorno-Karabakh, a reflection of global disorder“
The French press also always follows the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Nagorno-Karabakh, a reflection of world disruption,” headlines Le Monde, who then explains: “Turkey’s entry into the conflict with Azerbaijan illustrates its desire to exploit the vacuum left by the United States and Russia’s hesitation.” Yes, Nagorno-Karabakh is “a textbook case, a nagging territorial dispute within post-Soviet space”, the article adds, recalling “the current deadly clashes, provoked by Azerbaijan’s offensive against this area populated mainly by Armenians”
Le Figaro, for his part, clearly sees that “Putin is now trying to regain control”. The Russian president yesterday hosted Moscow in “negotiations to try to start a dialogue in the presence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers”. After two weeks of fighting, Moscow hopes to “introduce a ceasefire,” Le Figaro explains.
The newspaper also notes Iran’s position, which has common borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan, and which is, above all, “hampered by a conflict between two neighbors and allies”. An official in Tehran also acknowledges this. In any case, we are still learning from the article, the diplomatic adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, the former foreign minister Akbar Velayati, punctured the points in: “Our patience has limits” he warned, while about twenty mortars have already fallen on villages northwest of the Islamic Republic .
An award that does not make much noise this year
No major titles at the Nobel Peace Prize, less noticed than in previous years. If not for liberation, which nevertheless awards a double page to this Nobel Peace Prize awarded yesterday to the United Nations World Food Program. “An inauguration that comes at a time when the goal of ‘zero hunger’ in 2030 is moving away with the Covid crisis,” the article emphasizes. Libé then offers an interview with the president of NGO Action Against Hunger. Pierre Micheletti condemns the “Western monopoly” for donations to WFP. And precisely by the fact that humanitarian aid is a “tool of soft power for donor countries, mainly from Western Europe or North America”. Humanitarian aid (or development aid), tools for soft power? We dare not believe it.
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