Obama, Sarkozy Trash Netanyahu in Private
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 1:15PMA French media organization says President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy both complained about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a private bilateral meeting that was mistakenly broadcast to a media conference room during last week’s G-20 summit in France.
Web-based news site Arret Sur Image reported that while journalists sat waiting for Obama and Sarkozy to give a joint press conference last Thursday, a technical mistake allowed them to listen in on a closed door conversation between both Presidents over their translation headset devices.
According to Arret Sur Image, Obama first complained that Sarkozy hadn’t informed him that France would vote in favor of Palestinian membership to UNESCO. Sarkozy then told the President what he thought about Netanyahu.
“I can’t stand to see him any more, he’s a liar.”
Obama apparently responded: “You’re tired of him, but I have to deal with him everyday!” Obama then reportedly asked for Sarkozy’s help convincing Palestinian leadership to slow down its bid for membership at the United Nations.
Arret Sur Image says that after translation headsets were inadvertently handed out, an announcement informed reporters in attendance that headsets had not been distributed to the press yet because they would allow them to listen in on the closed door conversation.
Dozens of journalists reportedly rushed to put on their headsets and listened in on about three minutes of private discussion between Sarkozy and Obama before French officials realized what was going on and cut the audio. Arret Sur Image says the majority of reporters who overheard the conversation agreed not to broadcast or report on it.
Fixing the financial sector is top priority
During a news conference discussing prospects for the upcoming G-20 summit meetings and the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Managing Director Domique Strauss-Kahn said among the topics that he would like to see developed and explained during the G20 meeting next week are the financial sector, sustainability of fiscal efforts, needs of the emerging countries, and special needs of the low income countries, and he named fixing the financial sector as the most important of these five goals. Cleaning the balance sheet of the financial sector, and especially of the banks, is “the right thing to do now,” said Strauss-Kant.
Strauss-Kant said that you can put as much money as you want in financial, fiscal, stimulus but if at the same time you don’t clean up the balance sheets at the bank, and you don’t make the financial sector working again, then it will just melt.
Strauss-Kant stated that different countries can use different techniques depending on their history, political constraint, but they have to do it and they have to do it now.
He went on to say that the capital influences that the emerging countries relied on are now dried up, which is why we need to have resources for the IMF and we need to improve our facility to help those countries. “The problem of emerging countries is now becoming one of the biggest problems of the crisis,” said Strauss-Kahn.
Regarding low-income countries, Strauss-Kahn said that, “even if the figures, the needs, are not as big as the needs for emerging countries, the needs are significant and I want to make it possible to double the concessional loan that the IMF is lending to those countries.” He said that he hopes the change in facility that was introduced a few days ago will be helpful and stated that “I would like to see the G20 approving this.”
We are still in a situation where most of the markets are frozen, said Strauss-Kahn, and “everything which can be done by the central banks to try to de-freeze this system is welcome in my view.”
Strauss-Kahn said that it is understandable for China to raise questions about a global reserve currency and stated that, “I don’t see that the role of the dollar is at threat today.”
In response to questions about the Chinese artificially keeping their currency low in order to stimulate their exports, Strauss-Kahn said that the big changes which will take place because of the crisis include the kind of changes which will force countries like China to take more into account domestic demand and as a result to have a re-evaluation of their currency.
Strauss-Kahn said he thinks that what has been announced by Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geinthner goes in the right direction. He stated that, “fiscal stimulus itself will only be affective if the financial sector is healthy again.”
Strauss-Kahn addressed that the debate about the IMF being more on one side than another is “totally wrong.” He said that there is no domestic solution to what may be the first real global crisis. He stated that we all have in mind examples of countries where the temptation is to keep at home the money which is used to try to boost the economy and it is very difficult to explain that what we are doing has to be done even if it’s for other countries because we will then in return benefit from what they do. “The attempt to say we’re going sort our own problem alone is something which happens everywhere.”