French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner sought Monday to tone down remarks he made in an interview the day before that the world had to prepare for possible war against Iran.
Slammed by Iran and quietly criticized within his own government, Kouchner shifted the focus away from the threat of war and back to a call for hard negotiations as the way to force Iran to abandon key nuclear activities.
“The worst situation would be war,” Kouchner told journalists en route to Moscow. “And to avoid the worst, the French position is very clear: Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, and work with our European friends on credible sanctions.”
On Sunday, Kouchner, a Socialist known for his blunt talk, said in an interview broadcast on RTL radio and LCI television: “We will negotiate until the end. And at the same time we must prepare ourselves.”
Asked what he meant, he replied, “It is necessary to prepare for the worst,” adding, “The worst, it’s war, sir.”
Asked again to explain himself, Kouchner announced that France was doing military contingency planning for an eventual war.
Lost in the remarks about war planning was his other, less alarmist message: that France is committed to using diplomacy to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran, that no military action is planned and that he did not believe there would be an American military intervention while President Bush is still in office.