Quote:Armoured vehicles, night vision binoculars: Qatar lends equipment to French police for Olympics

France having deployed much of its tactical equipment in New Caledonia, it has asked Doha for
help in securing the Games, Le Monde has learned.


What they want you to think...


...What is.

'Qatari armored vehicles, some in urban camouflage livery, made their way through the streets of Paris,
passing by the Arc de Triomphe, the Pont de l'Alma and the Eiffel Tower with a French police escort.
On Friday, July 12, the security partnership between France and Qatar for the Olympic Games did not
go unnoticed. Qatar was pleased with the public relations operation, sharing it on social media.

Also filmed and photographed by dozens of passers-by, the procession prompted hundreds of
publications and comments – often indignant – online. "Despite its proximity to the Muslim
Brotherhood and #Hamas, Qatar, marching through Paris, is supporting our law enforcement
for the #JO [Olympics]. Soon China or even Russia?" asked Senator Valérie Boyer
(Les Républicains, right-wing), on X.

The photo, and others like it, have raised a few eyebrows among law enforcement officers.
"They turn up with 4x4s in urban guerrilla mode when they're supposed to be doing foot patrols
and wandering police dogs around Roissy – it doesn't make any sense," said an Interior Ministry
source on Friday, recalling that, on paper, the agreement signed on February 28 between France
and Qatar on security cooperation for the Olympics covered foot patrols by Qatari police officers
and explosives detection missions. "So what's the point of parading around in war vehicles?"
he asked.

Long-standing cooperation
The tour of Paris with sirens wailing was all the more irritating for the public authorities as they
have been far less forthcoming about another agreement made discreetly between the emirate's
authorities and the national gendarmerie.

Le Monde has learned that the French Gendarmerie's GIGN elite tactical unit has made an unusual
request to Qatar: to obtain the loan of half a dozen armored vehicles to enable it to carry out its
security missions during the Olympic Games.

The Gendarmerie is not commenting officially but several sources within the institution point to a
necessity due to the allocation of manpower and equipment to the situation in New Caledonia
where tension was rekindled after the death of a 38-year-old man, Rock Victorin Wamytan, during
an intervention by the GIGN on Wednesday, July 10, in a local context that is still extremely tense.

In June, the Qatari government announced its agreement to provide the elite Gendarmerie unit with
five to six unmarked and armored 4x4s, as well as an armored vehicle of the small protected vehicle
type, "by virtue of the ties that unite the Lekhwiya [Qatar's internal security force] and the Gendarmerie."