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Chirac Flips On Iran
President Chirac says Iran Nuke isn't a worry - then summons reporters for second round to withdraw remarks.
Strange goings-on in the Elysee. On Monday, president Jacques Chirac granted a rare interview with the French and foreign press. At the beginning of the week, the papers were feverishly speculating that a US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was imminent: As you might expect, the president was asked for his thoughts on the matter.
First, in the 29 January interview, he described Iran's nuclear activities as "very dangerous." However, he added, it isn't the fact that Iran might have a bomb that is the worry, but the threat that other Middle Eastern nations, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia might follow suit.
Of the Iranian bomb, Chirac said, "Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel? It would not have gone 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed to the ground."
(This of course in itself may be of no consequence to Iran's leadership: The current president of Iran appears to welcome the prospect of an apocalyptic confrontation, while another religious leader has gloated that it would take just one Iranian nuke to destroy Israel, while any Israeli response could not wipe out the entire Muslim world. The millions of inhabitants of Tehran and Iran's other big cities might not share their leaders' zeal for their destruction... but that's another story).
Anyway, the US papers sat on their stories as agreed, until Thursday when the French magazine also attending the interview was to publish. However, rumours began to circulate that the President wasn't altogether in possession of his full complement of marbles when the first interview took place: The 74 year old seemed distracted, one reporter claimed, and appeared to rely on his aides for names and dates.
The following day, the journalists were summoned back to the Presidential residence with word that the previous day's interview had been off the record. Before the meeting, they were presented with a 19-page "Elysee version" of the interview, in which references to the destruction of Tehran had been excised and a line added, which read "I do not see what type of scenario could justify Iran's recourse to an atomic bomb."
The IHT and New York Times claim that Chirac never uttered this phrase - though add that it is not uncommon for French authorites to release "approved versions" of interviews, and that the tradition of offering subjects copy approval is widespread in France.
In the second interview, Chirac was back on his feet, and claimed he "takes back" his remark that Tehran would be flattened: However, he did add, mysteriously, that if Iran ever did launch a nuke against Israel, the rocket would be destroyed before it reached its target:
"We have the means, several countries have the means to destroy a bomb," he said - an interesting insight into French military capability, there.
He also retracted his claim that Egypt and Saudi Arabia could pursue their own nuclear programmes, and for good measure revised his view that Iran's leadership was "fragile", instead talking up the nation's long history and importance for the stability of the region.
He spoke of how he refused to meet Iran's President Ahmadinejad in New York last year in protest against Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. Reporters attempted to push him on his views on a possible response to an Iranian attack on Israel, but he refused to be drawn on legal and potential nuclear responses.
The IHT reckons that Chirac appeared more together in the second interview, compared to the flaky first day - and wonders if the president's remarks on the first day reflected his real views on the issue, while the second day was the official line.
