French defense minister to visit Middle East in April
French Defense Minister Alain Richard will visit the Middle East on April 12, including Israel and the Palestinian self-rule areas and Egypt.
The French minister will be a guest of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in his three-day visit.
The French minister will visit the Israeli Air Industries Company and Yad Vashem memorial for victims of the Jewish Holocaust, as well as the Shields Museum.
Richard will be the first French on an official visit to Israel since the visit of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin at the end of February which raised the denunciation of the Arab states when he depicted the attacks of Hizbullah against Israel as terrorism.
