Shortly after whistleblower website Wikileaks revealed that the United State's National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on French Presidents Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac between 2006 and 2012, Paris has summoned Washington D.C.'s envoy Jane Hartley to register its protest.
An emergency meeting of the Defence Council was called by French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday morning. A statement released after the meet termed the behaviour 'unacceptable' and warned that the country would not tolerate any actions 'that put French security and the protection of French interests in danger', reported the BBC.
The White House, however, was quick to release a statement that they were not targeting and will not target the communications of President Hollande and added that France was an 'indispensable partner' for them.
The statement, however, made no reference to past practices and also refrained from ruling out the possibility of conducting surveillance in the future in the case of 'a valid national security purpose'.
