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Iran slams France on warning

Paris: Unusually tough remarks by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner raising the spectre of war against Iran, and that too on the eve of a world meeting on nuclear issues, have brought forth a tough riposte from Tehran and sent alarm bells ringing across West Asia.

“We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war,” Mr. Kouchner said in an interview broadcast on French television and radio on Sunday.

“We must negotiate right to the end,” he said, but hinted at war preparations afoot by adding: “We are trying to put in place plans which are the privilege of chiefs of staff and that is not for tomorrow. We will not accept that the bomb is manufactured.”

Iran, through its official media, launched a scathing attack against what it called America’s France. “The new occupants of the Elysee (presidential palace) want to copy the White House,” the state-owned IRNA news agency said in an editorial. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant on Sunday, declaring that Iran had mastered nuclear technology and would never yield in the face of international pressure over its atomic drive. This heated exchange through the media took place as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) prepared to open its annual conference in Vienna, with Iran top of the agenda.

On Friday, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany are due to discuss a new draft resolution on sanctions against Iran.

Meanwhile, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei came under increasing fire from the West, which considers the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner to be too soft on Tehran. He has been accused of cutting a deal with Iran on new inspections under the NPT Treaty.

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