Paris - France on Tuesday formally told the United States to stop snooping on the telephone calls of French citizens but signalled it wanted to cool a row over the issue. In a breakfast meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Frances Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius insisted on being given a full explanation of the latest revelations about a controversial US spying programme. He [Fabius] repeated our demand for an explanation of spying practices which are unacceptable between partners and which must stop, a spokesperson for the minister said after the brief meeting. Despite the robust tone adopted by the foreign ministry, there were signs that Paris wants to defuse the row created by revelations in Le Monde newspaper that the US National Security Agency had monitored more than 70 million phone communications in France between 10 December 2012 and 8 January this year.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:40:51 +0000