Iran protests against Sarkozy remarks

Dec 11, 2008, 9:46 GMT

   Tehran - Iran warned Paris of 'unsuitable consequences' in a formal protest against remarks by French President Nicolas Sarkozy critical of his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday.

   The Iranian foreign ministry summoned Bernard Poletti, French Ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday, and told him that 'France's dilettante extremist approach towards Iran would leave unsuitable consequences on bilateral ties,' IRNA reported.

   In a speech on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Righs, Sarkozy said on Monday that Ahmadinejad was not representing the Iranian people and he would hence not hold direct talks with him in the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.

'The Iranian people are one of the greatest people of the world, one of the oldest civilizations, cultured and open, but they have the misfortune to be represented today by some of their leaders,' Sarkozy said, according to the website of the French presidency.

While the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions could not be resolved without talking to Iranian leaders, Sarkozy said: 'I know perfectly well that the Iranian President does not represent Iran, much less the Iranian people.'

'I told my friend (former UN secretary-general) Kofi Annan that it is impossible for me to shake the hand of someone who dared to say Israel must be erased from the map,' Sarkozy said, referring to remarks to that extent by Ahmadinejad.

'I cannot sit on the same table ... after we had the Holocaust, after we had these tragedies in the 20th century, with a man who dares to say Israel must be erased from the map,' he added.

Among those attending the event in Paris were former Irish president and UN commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson and Nobel Peace Prize winner former US president Jimmy Carter.

Western states, led by the US, suspect the Islamic republic of secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. Last month, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution criticising human rights violations in Iran.