The new French ambassador to Washington will be able to assume his position after obtaining the approval of the American authorities yesterday (Tuesday), according to what a US State Department official confirmed, putting an end to a stalemate that lasted weeks due to a diplomatic dispute.
According to Agence France-Presse, the US State Department had frozen, in late July, approval of the appointment of Aurélien Le Chevalier, who was chosen by President Emmanuel Macron to be ambassador to Washington to succeed Laurent Bailey, due to a diplomatic dispute between the two countries, and he is now expected to arrive in Washington in the coming weeks.
On July 24, the United States was one of 10 countries that voted in the United Nations General Assembly against extending Volker Türk’s term as head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, joining countries such as North Korea, Russia, Nicaragua, and others.
The French mission wrote on the “X” platform after Washington’s strong opposition to renewing the term of Türk, who repeatedly criticized US policies during the era of President Donald Trump,
“The United States has been a beacon of human rights. "This is no longer the case."
This criticism was met with an immediate reaction from Washington. The American ambassador withdrew from a UN Security Council meeting days later when the French ambassador took the floor, as an expression of his country's protest against these comments.
Then the US State Department obstructed the procedures for approving the appointment of Le Chevalier, who currently holds the position of Chief of Staff of the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot.
After talks to resolve this dispute, the French Permanent Mission to the United Nations published a statement in English on Friday, on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, in which it said: “France and the United States recently took different positions regarding a vote in the United Nations General Assembly. This discrepancy was limited to only one vote, and was not related to defending human rights.”
This admission of error was welcomed in Washington after the procedures for appointing the new French ambassador to the United States were suspended due to this dispute.
US approval to choose the French ambassador is usually a formality, but it has remained pending since the dispute erupted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian drones attacked Moldova's airspace twice while it was crossing its airspace.
Zelensky explained in an interview with the American CBS network that he was at Chisinau Airport in Moldova, on the western border of Ukraine, on his way to a foreign flight and then on a return flight when the two incidents occurred.
“They attacked Moldova when my presidential plane was there,” Zelensky said. “Maybe they didn’t want to attack me personally...”
He added, "And when we returned home, passing through Chisinau again, they repeated their action."
On September 9, a spokesman for the Moldovan government said that the takeoff of Zelensky's plane bound for Norway was delayed due to the Chisinau authorities closing the country's airspace following an alarm related to a drone.
Two Russian drones entered Moldovan airspace that day. One of them landed in a field north of the capital, causing a fire, while the second continued on its way into Romanian airspace.
Zelensky never spoke about the second incident.
It is not clear exactly when Zelensky will cross Moldova again on his way back to Ukraine from Canada.
Moldova authorities said that two drones entered its airspace on Monday, September 14.
On Sunday, a Russian drone collided with a passenger train on the Ukrainian border with Poland, a NATO member, shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats used the same line.
The United States announced new restrictions on granting visas to South African citizens, after US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the racial justice policies adopted by the country since the end of the apartheid regime.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the South African government's policies regarding land ownership reform and addressing the economic and social legacy of the former apartheid regime, knowing that they aim to address the great disparities that still exist 30 years after the end of white minority rule.
The US State Department said that the new measures target South African citizens who “contribute to the expropriation of land without compensation, discrimination based on race, and/or incitement to imminent violence against members of racial or ethnic minorities.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “As President Trump has made clear, the people of South Africa are harmed by a government that is destroying the country’s economy through its excessive effort to resolve racial grievances at the expense of the Afrikaner minority.”
He added that visa restrictions would target people who “promote discrimination based on race, incite violence, or contribute to the confiscation of land without compensation.”
In 2025, the US President directed sharp criticism at his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, during a meeting in the Oval Office, against the backdrop of what he described as “white genocide.” He imposed high customs duties on South Africa, while boycotting the G20 summit hosted in Johannesburg that year.
