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France rules out involvement in I. Coast

05 January 2011 00:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. French President Nicolas Sarkozy says his country has no plans to get involved in crisis-hit Ivory Coast’s internal affairs, APA reports quoting Press TV.

"There is no ambiguity," Sarkozy said in a New Year’s address to soldiers at an air force base in Saint-Dizier in northeastern France.

"The vocation of our soldiers is not to interfere in the internal affairs of this country. They act by virtue of a United Nations mandate," he said.

The French Defense Ministry Alain Juppe said earlier Tuesday that France’s troops located in Ivory Coast would not launch armed intervention in order to solve the West African country leadership conflict, but would defend the French nationals there, AFP reports.

Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara have been locked in a standoff since the presidential elections in November.

Tensions further escalated after they both claimed victory and appointed separate cabinets.

Sarkozy has repeated his support for Ouattara, which has gained international recognition as the winner of the presidential elections.

France has 900 troops supporting a UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast.