We recognise that Iran has a legitimate right to defend its position in the region. Iran is an ancient civilisation, a major country. Its desire to have weight in the region is legitimate. We cannot pretend it does not exist. We need to be able to re-establish normal relations with Iran.

Jack, le combattant de la paix
PARIS 26 July 2006

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.

Philippe Douste-Blazy,*
le ministre du calumet de la paix
BEIRUT 1 August 2006

But pretend France does. At least she pretends there is some other reasonable Iran that can be invited to international tea parties, instead of the repressive theocracy-on-a-mission Iran that plainly and openly threatens mayhem.

Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
sweetness and light
PUTRAJAYA 3 August 2006

M. Douste-Blazy was shocked. And only days after his nice French valentine to Iran. Shocked!

"I totally condemn these words," Douste-Blazy said on France-Inter radio, in response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement Thursday that the solution to the current Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel.

The words are "absolutely unacceptable on anyone's part, especially from a head of state," Douste-Blazy said.

Douste-Blazy said that the crisis had presented an opportunity for Iran to "show that it can play a positive and stabilizing role in the region," but added that Ahmadinejad's statement "confirmed that this is not the case."

Yes. We'd say pretty much not the case. But this is neither the first nor the worst such pronouncement from Mr. Ahmadinejad. Here he is on October 26, 2005:

The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world. ... As the Imam [the late Ayatollah Khomeini] said, 'Israel must be wiped off the map'… The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland.

Here on April 14, 2006:

Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm.

Here in May 2006:

We say if the Holocaust happened, then the Europeans must accept the consequences and the price should not be paid by Palestine. If it did not happen, then the Jews must return to where they came from.

It's not like the sporting Mr. Ahmadinejad hasn't given France a few clues.

Poor M. le Ministre! His travels have been so sudden that he forgot to pack his big pink pillow in which he sheds bitter tears over French disappointments.

* The dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.

PFFT (What is this?): Nissing the big pink pillow 4 | Rayonnement français 0