Côte d’Ivoire
Paris, January 22, 2011
France recalls that, through the presidential election at the end of 2010, the Ivorian people expressed their sovereign will by electing M. Alassane Ouattara.
Like the rest of the international community, France unreservedly recognizes M. Ouattara as President of Côte d’Ivoire.
She consequently recognizes the legitimacy of the statements made by or on behalf of his government. By contrast, France considers positions and statements supposedly made on behalf of Côte d’Ivoire by those who have not accepted the consequences of the presidential election results to be illegal and illegitimate.
In this instance, the French Republic regards the statement by M. Laurent Gbagbo regarding the French Ambassador, M. Jean-Marc Simon, as null, void and without legal force./.