A long-time friend of the government of Saddam Hussein, especially of Tariq Aziz, he was the leader of the pro-Iraqi lobby in the National Assembly until the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and their allies.
The journey irritated President Jacques Chirac and Foreign affairs minister Dominique de Villepin, who called them "pieds nickelés" (a derogatory and mocking expression denoting incompetence and vanity).
On 30 September 2004, while French diplomacy had been trying to obtain the liberation of Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, two journalists held hostage by the Islamic Army in Iraq, he went to Damascus.
Three days later, he stated that he had succeeded in liberating the hostages, thanks to his contacts all over the world (mainly former baathists, and the President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo, who provided support, including the Ivorian presidential plane).
He later said that he had eventually failed in extremis, and went back to France on 4 October, where the press and the political circles called him and his team "pieds nickelés" again.
The French foreign minister stated that the case would be processed by regular services and that the investigation on Julia would continue (Florence Aubenas was freed on 11 June).