French President Jacques Chirac said he would withdraw French troops deployed in war-divided Ivory Coast if the government in the former colony requested the move. "France is not waging a war of occupation. If they want us to stay there, we will stay," Chirac said Wednesday at the start of a two-day visit to Senegal. But "we have no intention of staying if we are not wanted." Rebels seized the northern half of Ivory Coast after a failed 2002 coup attempt. Government troops in the south reignited the West African nation's long-stagnant civil war for several days in November, launching bombing runs against rebel targets, including one that killed nine French peacekeepers. France responded swiftly, destroying Ivory Coast's tiny air force in a move that sparked waves of anti-French, and anti-foreigner, violence in the south and put relations between France and Ivory Coast at an all-time low. France has 4,000 troops stationed in the country, helping to bolster security along with 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers. Chirac called for a renewed effort to solve the crisis in Ivory Coast peacefully, saying there could be no military solution to the country's simmering conflict. "The key now is to achieve political stability and revive the political situation through elections. A military solution is crazy," Chirac said, but added that "today, I don't see any real effort to prepare or organize elections, and that worries me a bit." "The Ivory Coast, it's a very great sadness for many Africans and the French people," he said. Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade lauded France's intervention, saying "the arrival of French troops had prevented a massacre in Ivory Coast" by doing so. Regarding Iran's nuclear program, Chirac said he hoped for a peaceful solution that would see Iran drop completely its military technology.
