French leader backtracks on Iran comment

[helderheid]

French leader backtracks on Iran comment

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 1, 9:20 AM ET

PARIS -
President Jacques Chirac backtracked Thursday and said a nuclear-armed
Iran would be unacceptable, reversing earlier comments that Tehran's possession of a nuclear bomb would not be "very dangerous."


"France, along with the international community, cannot accept the prospect of an Iran equipped with a nuclear weapon," Chirac's office said in a statement seeking to limit fallout from the French leader's remarks to the International Herald Tribune and two other publications.

"The Iranian nuclear program is opaque and therefore dangerous for the region," the statement added. It urged Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, and said the
United Nations would respond to such a move by suspending sanctions and that negotiations with Tehran would resume.

The statement followed a remarkable morning of damage-control by Chirac's office, which took the unusual step of asking reporters to come over in person for a clarification about his comments that Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon would not be "very dangerous" and that if used on
Israel, Tehran would be immediately "razed."

Chirac, who made the comments during a Monday interview, called reporters back the next day to try to have his quotes retracted.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_as/france_chirac_iran;_ylt=Asris.n4a4BmYXOUFJczAVKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

[jwirr]

1. EU is walking a tight rope. They know that they do not trust *ss

but they are also afraid of an nuclear armed Iran.