The Times
February 02, 2007
Global fallout from Chirac's bombshell
Charles Bremner in Paris
French officials rushed to repair the diplomatic damage yesterday after President Chirac appeared to condone “one or two” Iranian nuclear bombs and sketched an apocalyptic vision of a nuclear war between Iran and Israel.
The Socialist Opposition denounced the President. 74, for “madness and incompetence”, while the political world wondered about his faculties as he nears the end of his second term in May.
The gaffe sprang from “off the record” remarks in an interview with French and US media.
The President’s comments, later retracted, flew in the face of the international effort to put pressure on Tehran to abandon its uranium-enrichment programme.
The Elysée accused the American media last night of using his words to whip up anti-French feeling.
“I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one, or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very dangerous,” he said in an interview on Monday with Le Nouvel Observateur, The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Iran knew that it would be an act of self-destruction to use a nuclear weapon.
“Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?” Mr Chirac asked. “It would not have gone 200 metres into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed.”
On Tuesday, the Elysée called the reporters to clarify the President’s remarks, which blew a hole in the shaky front with Britain, America, Germany, China and Russia over Iran. “It is I who was wrong and I do not want to contest it,” Mr Chirac told the journalists.
timesonlin.co.uk
February 02, 2007
Global fallout from Chirac's bombshell
Charles Bremner in Paris
The Socialist Opposition denounced the President. 74, for “madness and incompetence”, while the political world wondered about his faculties as he nears the end of his second term in May.
The gaffe sprang from “off the record” remarks in an interview with French and US media.
The President’s comments, later retracted, flew in the face of the international effort to put pressure on Tehran to abandon its uranium-enrichment programme.
The Elysée accused the American media last night of using his words to whip up anti-French feeling.
“I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one, or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very dangerous,” he said in an interview on Monday with Le Nouvel Observateur, The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Iran knew that it would be an act of self-destruction to use a nuclear weapon.
“Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?” Mr Chirac asked. “It would not have gone 200 metres into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed.”
On Tuesday, the Elysée called the reporters to clarify the President’s remarks, which blew a hole in the shaky front with Britain, America, Germany, China and Russia over Iran. “It is I who was wrong and I do not want to contest it,” Mr Chirac told the journalists.
timesonlin.co.uk
