France summons US envoy over antisemitism accusations

France summoned the US envoy after Ambassador Charles Kushner accused Paris of not tackling antisemitism. The French foreign ministry rejected the claims, calling them interference and citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Paris: The French foreign ministry has summoned US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner following his accusations that France was not doing enough to combat antisemitism.

However, according to French television channel TV5 Monde, it was the chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Paris who met with officials at the French foreign ministry on Monday, as Kushner was not in Paris.

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The chargé d’affaires was informed that Kushner’s remarks “constituted interference in France’s internal affairs and presented an assessment that did not reflect reality,” TV5 Monde reported, citing a diplomatic source.

Kushner, who is Jewish and whose son is married to US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron in The Wall Street Journal.

In his letter, the ambassador urged Macron to tone down his criticism of Israel and cited examples of antisemitism that he said had “long scarred French life.”

The French foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday evening that Kushner had recently expressed concern about the rise of antisemitism in France in a letter to President Macron and accused the government of not taking sufficient action. The ministry firmly refuted the accusations, Xinhua news agency reported.

“They violate international law, particularly the obligation not to interfere in the internal affairs of states, as provided for in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the ministry said.