The United States has withheld approval of France’s next ambassador to Washington, holding up an appointment that is normally a formality between allies.
Aurélien Lechevallier, a long-standing associate of French President Emmanuel Macron and chief of staff to Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, had been expected to take over the embassy in September, Politico reported.
Before a diplomat can take up a posting, the receiving State must give its consent, a step known as agrément. The process is confidential and objections are usually settled privately rather than left unresolved.
The friction followed a July 25 post on X by the French mission to the United Nations in Geneva. It attacked Washington for joining Russia, North Korea and seven other countries in voting against a four-year extension of the mandate of Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore,” the mission wrote, adding that the world no longer listened to it.
The General Assembly approved the extension on July 24 by 144 votes to 10, with 13 abstentions, rejecting both a Russian proposal for a shorter term and an American request to postpone the ballot. Türk’s second mandate is due to begin on October 12.
The American delegation walked out of a Security Council session on the war in Ukraine as the French representative began speaking.
A State Department official told Politico the United States was responding appropriately to what it described as “irresponsible and disrespectful rhetoric” from the French side.
Türk, an Austrian lawyer who has held the post since 2022, has criticised Israel’s conduct in Gaza and called for investigations into deaths in American immigration custody.
Barrot had already angered the Trump administration by describing a State Department grant scheme for European civil society groups as foreign interference. The programme is intended to promote what Washington calls Europe’s “civilisational self-confidence” and national sovereignty.
Relations between the two capitals have been strained for months. US Ambassador to Paris Charles Kushner has twice been summoned by the French Government, most recently over remarks linked to the death of a right-wing activist.
Lechevallier, a former ambassador to South Africa, would succeed Laurent Bili, who has held the Washington post since 2023.
Politico reported that the dispute was expected to be settled and that Washington was not likely to block the nomination outright.
Critics in France have said a wave of recent appointments to senior posts amounts to an attempt by Macron to place allies in key institutions. The President’s second term ends in 2027 and he cannot stand again.
