Nicolas Sarkozy said in a Bastille Day speech that he would take steps to free abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“We’re going to mobilize to get him out,” the French president said Monday after honoring Ingrid Betancourt, a French Colombian who was rescued recently after being held hostage for six years by Colombian rebels, with the Legion of Honor.
Shalit has been held captive by Hamas since 2006.
Sarkozy also told journalists that “we talked a lot about Gilad Shalit” over the course of a diplomatically charged weekend, in which unprecedented meetings were held with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Assad may be able to push Hamas to free Shalit, who is also a French citizen.
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