Politics After dispute: US ambassador calls France's foreign minister
Following diplomatic tensions, US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot spoke on the phone. Kuschner called Barrot, according to sources close to Barrot. The two had agreed to meet in the coming days.
24.02.2026, 17:54
SDA
During the conversation, the French chief diplomat once again emphasized that France would not tolerate any influence or instrumentalization of domestic discourse by the authorities of a third country. Kushner had taken note of this and expressed that he did not wish to intervene in the debate.
The starting point of the dispute was that the US embassy in France had recently distributed a message from the US State Department's counter-terrorism office on X, in which a homicide in Lyon was seen as evidence of a worrying threat from left-wing extremist violence.
In mid-February, a 23-year-old activist was attacked and fatally injured on the fringes of a right-wing rally in Lyon. France's judiciary is still investigating who exactly was behind the death and how the incident unfolded. France's Foreign Minister Barrot rejected the US government's comments and replied that no instruction was needed.
Kushner was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Paris because of the post. However, he did not appear there in person on Monday, but had himself represented, according to diplomatic sources. Paris then cut off Kushner's direct access to members of the French government. Following the summoning of the ambassador, the restriction of his access to the government was another clear diplomatic signal of dissatisfaction.
