The French do it again.
I'm surprised no one here has brought out the fact that the French kept the EU from condemning Mahatir's recent anti-Semitic "Jews rule the world" commentary:
haaretzdaily.com
BRUSSELS, Belgium - French President Jacques Chirac blocked the European Union from ending a two-day summit Friday with a harshly worded statement condemning Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's remarks about Jews a day earlier.
Backed by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, officials said, Chirac objected to a few short sentences in a 19-page summit statement deploring Mahathir's comment at an Islamic leaders summit that "Jews rule the world by proxy."
Foreign ministers Thursday night had drafted a text that said: "His unacceptable comments hinder all our efforts to further interethnic and religious harmony, and have no
place in a decent world. Such false and anti-Semitic remarks are as offensive to Muslims as they are to others."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters Thursday night Mahathir's remarks were "gravely offensive."
But when the paper was handed to EU leaders Friday morning, Chirac said there was no place in an EU declaration for a text of this kind, diplomats said. Other leaders agreed, although the Netherlands wanted the wording to stay in the declaration.
The leaders then compromised by having Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the summit host, criticize Mahathir at his closing news conference.
The French Embassy in Israel issued a statement saying that Chirac condemned the Malaysian's prime minister's statements about Jews, but that the French President felt that the EU summit statement was not the appropriate place
to express this.
Officials said the draft text also would be issued as a separate statement and would be posted on the EU presidency website, ueitalia2003.it.
Berlusconi told reporters Mahathir's comments about Jews undermine efforts to bring different religions closer.
"All of our efforts must go toward a dialogue between the Western world and the Islamic world, between Christian religion and Islamic religion," he added.
Britain summons Malaysian diplomat Britain summoned Malaysia's top diplomat in London on Friday to express concern about Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's
remark that Jews rule the world, the Foreign Office said.
Malaysian High Commissioner Mohammed Dato'Abdul Aziz was summoned Friday morning to meet Minister of State Mike O'Brien "to raise our concerns directly about Prime Minister
Mahathir's speech," the Foreign Office said.
"It's unfortunate that Mahathir chose to make these remarks which we regard as unacceptable. It's particularly regrettable that some of his positive and welcome messages, such as negotiation being the right path to peace and the futility of terrorism, have been obscured and overshadowed by racist remarks," the Foreign Office said.
<<UPDATE>>>>
haaretz.com |
