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The New Media Department of The Post and Courier
FRIDAY, AUGUST 04, 2006 6:47 AM
France's blunder over Iran
France is playing a duplicitous game in the Middle East. Fortunately, its current diplomats are not as adept at causing mischief as they were when France prevented a consensus on how to deal with Iraq's defiance of the U.N. Security Council. This time France has been quietly backing Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, against the United States, Britain and Israel in the war raging in southern Lebanon. But France's foreign minister, behaving as ludicrously as that epic blunderer Inspector Clouseau, has exposed French perfidy.
On Monday Philippe Douste-Blazy told incredulous reporters at a press conference at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut that Iran is working to stabilize the Middle East. 'In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region.' Later he met at the embassy in Beirut with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who thanked France for calling for an immediate cease-fire in southern Lebanon.
The outcry in France that followed his words prompted Mr. Douste-Blazy to rephrase his remarks. He told the Jewish Community Radio station in Paris Wednesday that he meant to say Iran had 'a part of responsibility in the current conflict' between Israel and Hezbollah and that it had 'to help pacify the region.'
That was not the end of it. Yesterday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was attending an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Malaysia, put into words the kind of stability that Iran is seeking. The Associated Press quoted President Ahmadinejad saying that the solution for the conflict in Lebanon is the 'elimination' of Israel. 'Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented,' he said. 'Today the Americans are after the greater Middle East. The Zionist regime is used to reach this objective. The sole existence of this regime is for invasion and attack.'
Responding once more, Mr. Douste-Blazy said yesterday: 'I totally condemn these words,' adding that they are 'absolutely unacceptable on anyone's part, especially from a head of state.' In a further attempt to clarify his earlier remarks, the French foreign minister said that Iran had an opportunity to 'show that it can play a positive and stabilizing role in the region,' but that President Ahmadinejad's statement 'confirmed that this is not the case.'
The same could be said of France. It has an opportunity to play a positive and stabilizing role in the region, but its covert support for Iran - revealed by the blunder of Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy - suggests that is not the case.
Thats what you get for bailing France out every world war.
