Iran is a stabilizing force?!?

[chaim]

What is the Foreign Minister of France smoking and where can I get some?


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153292045196&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

French FM: Iran a 'stabilizing force'
By HERB KEINON
           

Israeli officials were bewildered by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy's comment Monday that Iran plays a stabilizing role in the region, but said this should be seen in the wider context of a French-US tug-of-war regarding whether Iran or Syria is the ultimate bad guy in the region.

Douste-Blazy, who was in Beirut Monday, said, "In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region."

One senior diplomatic official in Jerusalem said Douste-Blazy's comments should earn him the "Hugo prize for science fiction. What planet is he on? It's not Planet Earth if he thinks Iran is a stabilizing force."

Nevertheless, the comment, according to sources in Jerusalem, reflects a school of thought in Paris that believes that if Iran is given a "little rope" it could rein in Hizbullah.

This is in stark opposition to a school of thought that is gaining some traction in the US, which posits that the US should make some overtures to Syria to try to take it out of Iran's orbit, and as a result bring Hizbullah down a notch.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman gave voice to this thinking in a column last week, filed from Damascus.

"Can we get the Syrians on board? Can we split Damascus from Teheran?" Friedman asked. "My conversations here suggest it would be very hard, but worth a shot. It is the most important strategic play we could make, because Syria is the bridge between Iran and Hizbullah."

According to diplomatic officials in Jerusalem, this way of thinking is anathema to the French, whose President Jacques Chirac has - because of the assassination of his friend Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister - developed a deep antipathy to the Syrian regime and its president Bashar Assad.

Chirac's policy, according to officials in Jerusalem, "can be summed up in one phrase: Anybody but Assad." It is for this reason, the officials said, that the French foreign minister decided to praise Teheran while in Beirut.

[Guest]

If Iran is a stabilizing force, gasoline is a great ingredient for fire extinguishers.

[Art Eatman]

France marches to her own drummer, and to hell with anybody else's ideas.  Iran is a better trading partner than Syria.  Remember the oil-for-food deal with Iraq?  And the French chicanery therein?  France has long been economically involved in the Middle East, and has long had a working agreement with terrorists of various stripes and persuasions that the Surete won't actively hunt for them if they don't set off bombs in France.

And anytime France can stick it in our ear, consider it done.

Art

[Strings]

>France marches to her own drummer, and to hell with anybody else's ideas<

I'd say it's more of a tuba player...

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

And anytime France can stick it in our ear, consider it done.

I'd like to believe this isn't true.  I really would.  But I just can't do it.  

[Strings]

>I'd like to believe this isn't true.  I really would.  But I just can't do it.<

I'd like to believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and my ability to win the lotto. I think I COULD believe in any of those, before believing France isn't actively interested in shafting us...