Kouchner Plays Down Iran 'War' Remarks

[LSK]

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has sought to play down his remarks that the world should prepare for war against Iran. He did not want to appear to be a "warmonger," he said Tuesday as he headed to Moscow for talks.

With his remarks Sunday that the world should prepare for war against Iran, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner ratcheted up the rhetoric in the stand-off over Iran's nuclear program. Now he has sought to explain the remarks and said he had intended to deliver a message of peace.

"I do not want it to be said that I am a warmonger!" he told the newspaper Le Monde Tuesday as he flew to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "My message was a message of peace, of seriousness and of determination. ... The worst situation would be war. To avoid that, the French attitude is to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, without fear of being rebuffed, and to work with our European friends on credible sanctions."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,506361,00.html