France, Iran in tiff
The NYT reports on Iran’s angry reaction to the recent comments of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner about the world bracing for war with Iran:
Iran’s state-run news agency made an angry attack on the French government today after the French foreign minister said the world should brace for war against Iran over its nuclear program, although he did not believe war was imminent. “The new occupants of the Élysée want to copy the White House,” IRNA news agency wrote in an editorial today, referring to the French presidential palace…
“The new French politicians have become interpreters of the White House while their other European partners have welcomed Iran ‘s historical agreement” with the nuclear agency, the editorial wrote. “The French people will never forget the era when a non-European moved into the Élysée.”…
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner…said France had asked French companies not to bid for tenders in the Islamic Republic. “We have already asked a certain number of our large companies to not respond to tenders, and it is a way of signaling that we are serious,” he said, according to Reuters. “We are not banning French companies from submitting,” he said. “We have advised them not to. These are private companies. But I think that it has been heard and we are not the only ones to have done this.”
Koucher’s comments about French firms not investing in Iran echo previous speculations about companies in the West abetting the severe decline of Iran’s oil industry, which could cease being a net petroleum exporter by 2015.
(BTW, what was this Iranian comments about: ““The French people will never forget the era when a non-European moved into the Élysée.” — is this an oblique reference to Sarkozy’s ancestry, or just a political comment about his links to the US?)
September 17th, 2007 at 6:39 am
‘abetting the severe decline of Iran’s oil industry, which could cease being a net petroleum exporter by 2015.’
Did you mean ‘crude oil exporter’ there?
As I understand it, Iran is currently not a net petroleum (gasoline) exporter, rather the reverse.
The country seems to have a lack of refinery capability resulting in its having to import gasoline fuel for all those Toyota Trucks the Pasdaran like to drive around.:)