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Nicolas Sarkozy (L), French Interior Minister and Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party candidate for France's presidential election, shakes hands with Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, the umbrella group of French secular Jewish organisations.
Photo: AFP Copyright 2007
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PARIS (EJP)--- French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin pledged to stand by Israel and said he shared Israeli concerns over anti-Semitic remarks and the incitement to hatred by Iran’s president.
Speaking Tuesday night at the annual dinner of the CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organisations, de Villepin declared: ”France will always stand by Israel’s side to reaffirm our rejection of terrorism, fanaticism, violence and intolerance, and will not compromise on the security of Israel."
De Villepin said he "shared Israel’s legitimate concerns over the unacceptable remarks" by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
“I condemn without any reservation and with the strongest vigour the unacceptable comments made by Iran’s president on the Shoah as well as the organisation in Teheran of a conference on the Holocaust open to revisionist views.”
Such comments represent "an insult to the memory of (Holocaust) victims and their families" and a "threat to peace and stability in this very fragile region," the prime minister said.
He also said that France “cannot accept that Iran acquires a military nuclear capacity”.
Recall ambassador
Earlier in his speech, Roger Cukierman, CRIF’s president, had declared that “the analogy between Hitler and Ahmadinejad is self-evident” and called on France to solemnly summon Iran’s ambassador in Paris and recall its ambassador in Teheran “on 27 January, the day the world will commemorate Holocaust Day”.
De Villepin didn’t directly answer Cukierman’s plea but defended United Nations action on Iran and expressed the hope that the Iranian authorities would make the choice of dialogue. “If this is not the case, if Iran doesn’t answer to its obligations, additional measures will be examined,” he added.
As guest of honour at the dinner, an annual “political must”, Dominique de Villepin delivered his speech to an audience of some 800 invitees including France’s top political, social, religious, business, diplomatic and community leaders.
Insisting on the need “to continue to fight against the plague of anti-Semitism,” de Villepin declared: “There is no place in France for religious hatred or racism. That is why we shall pursue this fight up to the end.”
He stressed that France’s mobilisation against anti-Semitism “has bourn fruits”.
“In 2005, the number of anti-Semitic acts has been reduced by 47 percent in comparison to 2004. In four years, he said, anti-Semitic attacked have decreased by 40 percent, hailing the action of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy in this field.
Candidates present
Sarkozy, who is a candidate to the upcoming presidential election, as well his Socialist rival Ségolène Royal, made a short but well-noted appearance at Tuesday’s event during the cocktail preceding the dinner. Both shook hands with the guests and responded to the questions from journalists.
Sarkozy, who has been recently chosen as candidate by the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), declared that his presence at the CRIF dinner “was not an electoral message.”
“I am coming here every year but it is not a question of a candidate but it is important for the Republic to be there to say that there are things that we will not accept, among them anti-Semitism.”
“There is no electoral message, this would not be useful because there is no Jewish vote,” he added.
With 600,000 people, the Jewish community in France is the largest in Europe.
Royal, who initially was not expected to be present, reiterated her “firm” position towards Iran’s nuclear capacity.
“When one is controlling the enrichment of civil uranium, it can easily plunge into military use,” she said.
Among the guests present at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris were the ambassadors of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia, as well as the new Israeli ambassador, Daniel Shek.
Roger Cukierman, whose mandate at the head of CRIF will end next May, insisted on the CRIF’s “neutrality” in the current electoral debate after having been accused by the Socialists of backing Sarkozy. “The only instruction we are giving is to vote and not to contribute to the trivialisation of xenophobic ideas,” he said.