Iran has summoned the French ambassador to Tehran to protest against comments made by French president Nicolas Sarkozy about his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sarkozy, whose government has taken a tough stance against Tehran over its nuclear program, said he could not even sit at the same table as Ahmadinejad and that he did not represent the people of Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned ambassador Bernard Poletti to express "its strong objections to the recent interfering comments by the French president," and warned him "about the repercussion on bilateral relations of any repetition of such ill-considered remarks."
Sarkozy said it was "impossible for me to shake hands with someone who has dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map," and that he would not "sit at the same table." His comments were made on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to the French presidency website.
Iran does not recognize Israel and Ahmadinejad has caused international outrage by saying the Jewish state was a "cancerous tumor" and should disappear, and that the Holocaust was a "myth". Sarkozy acknowledged that the crisis over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive could not be resolved without talking to Iran, but said Ahmadinejad did not represent his people. "We cannot solve this crisis without talking to Iranian leaders," he said, but added: "I know perfectly well that the Iranian president does not represent Iran, much less the Iranian people. The Iranian people are one of the greatest people of the world, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, cultured and open, but they have the misfortune to be represented today by some of their leaders."
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