FRANCE: "NOW NOT THE MOMENT TO TALK WITH HAMAS"

France: "Now Not the Moment to Talk with Hamas" - Hilary Leila Krieger
The West should not be talking to Hamas at present, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the Jerusalem Post in Washington. In the run-up to the international meeting the U.S. is convening on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Kouchner said efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah would be a months-long undertaking that would set back the conference plans.

At the Center for Strategic and International Studies Kouchner defended Israel's alleged nuclear program after a protester in the audience called for a nuclear-free Middle East and suggested that Israel's nuclear capabilities should be neutralized as a way to create stability in the region. "Israel is threatened by Ahmadinejad," Kouchner said. "There is a real danger." When a threat is made, "we have to react, we have to defend our views," he said. "We have to defend democracy." "To those who say that we should handle Iran with kid gloves, since it could destabilize the region, I say this: look at its adventurism today and imagine what it would be like if Teheran thought itself one day protected by a nuclear umbrella." (Jerusalem Post)