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After Talk of War, Cooler Words in France on Iran
NYT ^ | September 18, 2007 | Katrin Bennhold and Elaine Sciolino

Posted on 09/18/2007 5:29:58 AM PDT by Schnucki

MOSCOW - France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, sought Monday to tone down remarks he made in a radio and television interview the day before that the world had to prepare for possible war against Iran.

Attacked verbally by Iran and quietly criticized within his own government, Mr. Kouchner shifted the focus away from the threat of war and back to a call for hard negotiations as the way to force Iran to abandon key nuclear activities.

“The worst situation would be war,” Mr. Kouchner told journalists en route to Moscow. “And to avoid the worst, the French position is very clear: negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, and work with our European friends on credible sanctions.”

On Sunday, Mr. Kouchner, a Socialist known for his blunt talk, said in an interview broadcast on RTL radio and LCI television: “We will negotiate until the end. And at the same time we must prepare ourselves.”

Asked what he meant in referring to preparation, he replied, “It is necessary to prepare for the worst,” adding, “The worst, it’s war, sir.”

Asked again to explain himself, Mr. Kouchner announced that France was doing military contingency planning for an eventual war, saying, “We are preparing by trying first of all to put together plans that are the unique prerogative of the chiefs of staff, but that — it’s not for tomorrow.”

Lost in the off-the-cuff and freewheeling remarks about war planning was his other, less alarmist message: that France is committed to using diplomacy to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran, that no military action is planned and that he did not believe there would be an American military intervention while President Bush was in office.

But his remarks fueled speculation that France was moving closer to the Bush administration position that all options — including war

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: france; iran; nuclear

1 posted on 09/18/2007 5:30:01 AM PDT by Schnucki
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To: Schnucki
After Talk of War, Cooler Words in France on Iran

Iran anger over French war warning

Two nearly adjacent headlines in the Free Republic list. All it took was for someone in iran to shout at someone in france for france to go back into ch!ckensh!t mode.

2 posted on 09/18/2007 6:34:32 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Man, that's stupid...even by congressional standards.)
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To: Schnucki
They surrendered already.

No big surprise.

3 posted on 09/18/2007 6:40:56 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
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To: RobinOfKingston
I posted the Iran Anger article shortly before the Cooler Words on purpose.

It may not be fair, but it sure seemed to me that this is how it really played out. :)

4 posted on 09/18/2007 7:51:12 AM PDT by Schnucki
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