Here is the innocuous back-page bottom-skim the AFP put out:

FRANCE PLANS TO SEND ENVOY TO IRAN FOR TALKS

PARIS January 16, 2007 (AFP) - France plans to send a special envoy to Iran to discuss "regional issues" including Lebanon and Israel's right to exist, the foreign ministry said here Tuesday.

The ministry was reacting to an article in Le Monde newspaper according to which French President Jacques Chirac wishes to "put out diplomatic feelers to Iran".

The ministry is doing more than reacting. It is doing damage control. Here is the actual story:

FRENCH VISIT TO TEHRAN, SEEN AS DIPLOMATIC FAUX PAS, IS ABORTED

PARIS January 16, 2007 (Ledger/NYT) - At a time when most world powers have forged a united front against Iran because of its nuclear program, President Jacques Chirac arranged to send his foreign minister to Tehran to talk about a side issue, then abruptly canceled the visit earlier this month in embarrassing failure.

Mr. Chirac’s troubles stemmed from his deep desire to help resolve the crisis in Lebanon before his term runs out in May. To that end, he decided to seek the support of Iran, which, along with Syria, backs the radical Shiite organization Hezbollah, three senior French officials said in describing the effort.

So he planned to send Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy* to Tehran, only to call off the trip two days before it was to have taken place, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on diplomatic issues.

Both Mr. Douste-Blazy and senior Foreign Ministry officials concluded that such a trip was doomed to fail and that it would send the wrong signal just weeks after the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved sanctions intended to curb Iran’s nuclear program, they added. That put Mr. Douste-Blazy in the uncomfortable position of having to tell Mr. Chirac that he did not want to go, one senior official said.

“This is not French diplomacy at its best,” the official said of the initiative, which was disclosed in the newspaper Le Monde on Tuesday afternoon.

The French plan contradicted the Bush administration strategy of trying to isolate and punish Iran. Rather than negotiating with Tehran, the United States is building up American forces in the Persian Gulf, persuading many international businesses to cut off dealings with Iran and trying to curtail Iranian operations in Iraq.

... The Bush administration apparently was not consulted in advance about the plan, and Stephen J. Hadley, the Bush administration’s national security adviser, protested to Jean-David Levitte, France’s ambassador in Washington.

We are shocked by the absence of French consultation. Shocked!

In subsequent communications with R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, and Craig R. Stapleton, the American ambassador to France, the Foreign Ministry gave assurances that it was trying hard to ensure that Mr. Douste-Blazy did not travel to Iran.

Iran, meanwhile, has officially expressed its displeasure that the trip was canceled.

For the moment, Jean-Claude Cousseran, a former head of France’s foreign intelligence service and former ambassador to Egypt, is planning to make the trip to Tehran, leaving open the face-saving possibility that the foreign minister could follow at a later, unspecified, date, a senior French official said.

But the initiative is so ad hoc and divisive that one senior official said even Mr. Cousseran’s trip might not take place.

... Mr. Douste-Blazy’s visit would have been a diplomatic coup for Iran. The last time France sent a senior delegation to Tehran was in October 2003, when Dominique de Villepin, who was then foreign minister, spent less than a day there along with his British and German counterparts.

The French initiative on Iran underscores the disarray of French foreign policy as Mr. Chirac nears the end of his second term as president.

It had been developed inside Élysée Palace by Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, Mr. Chirac’s national security adviser.

For more on the mysterious and bumbling diplo-tactician, M. Gourdault-Montagne, see here, here, and here.

* The dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.

PFFT (What is this?): Why we mock the French 4¼ | Ready to manage the multi-polar world 0 | Ready to manage a travel bureau ½ | Rayonnement français 0