Arrest of film director Jafar Panahi
Chad/ MINURCAT
Dubai
IAEA report/ Iran and Syria
Niger
Middle East
Arrest of film director Jafar Panahi
France expresses its sadness and grave concern following the announcement of the arrest of the Iranian film director Jafar Panahi and several of his friends and relatives.
It condemns the harassment of the Iranian opposition leaders and civil society and urges the authorities to release all political prisoners, as announced yesterday by the Tehran Prosecutor at the start of the Iranian New Year.
We are delighted that President Déby is planning to extend MINURCAT’s current mandate until May 16, as he indicated to the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy. Such an extension should enable the United Nations and the Chadian authorities to engage calmly in discussions regarding the modalities of MINURCAT’s presence beyond that date.
This initial progress achieved by Alain Le Roy’s visit is encouraging. He will give a report on the progress to the Security Council on March 5, in preparation for the renewal of MINURCAT’s mandate by March 15 and the continuation of discussions on the future of the mission.
The transition, which will be drawn up over the next 2 months, should guarantee an adequate level of security in the area, in particular through the Chadian Integrated Security Detachment responsible for security in the refugee and displaced persons camps; MINURCAT helps to strengthen this detachment.
How will Alain Le Roy’s report be followed up?
It will be discussed at the UN Security Council. It will allow us to have discussions with the Chadian authorities regarding the system that will follow on from MINURCAT. This extra time should also be used to strengthen the Chadian Integrated Security Detachment. We are therefore working in two directions: we will focus on the Chadian Integrated Security Detachment in order to strengthen the security of the population and the refugee camps in eastern Chad and determine how to coordinate the termination of MINURCAT’s mandate at the end of the two extra months.
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It will give all sides time to analyze the situation and above all to adapt the system in place to the reality on the ground.
You summoned an official from the Israeli Embassy in Paris concerning the discovery of genuine-fake passports in connection with the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai. Did you get the responses that you wanted regarding this issue?
I would like to reaffirm that with regard to this issue, the French passports used in this assassination are fake. They do not correspond to the details of the genuine holders of these passports. We formally condemn this practice.
I want to remind you of what the President of the Republic said. He irrefutably condemned what was nothing other than an assassination. These are strong words that need to be reaffirmed. The Israeli Chargé d’Affaires was summoned to the Quai d’Orsay concerning the use of a fake passport; at the time we were talking about one passport. Nothing can justify these methods. I expressed my opinion last week; I said that we were ready to cooperate with the Dubai and United Arab Emirates authorities.
Four passports were usurped and falsified. Have the four French citizens in question returned to France or are they abroad and can you tell us where they live?
No, we are going to leave the compatriots who found themselves caught up in this affair in peace.
Have they lodged a protest with the courts?
I don’t know.
The authorities of Abu Dhabi explicitly stated that Mossad is behind this assassination. Do you support this point of view?
We are not responsible for carrying out the investigation which is in progress. We told the Emirate authorities that we were going to verify the situation regarding the four passports that were discovered during the inquiry and that we want to cooperate fully with them.
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The IAEA report on Iran and Syria states that these two countries are not cooperating enough on the issues that come under their responsibility. Do you have any comment?
Concerning Syria, we have always said that we would like it to cooperate fully with the IAEA.
Concerning Iran, the IAEA Director General reaffirmed in his speech at the opening session of the Board of Governors certain points in his report, in particular the fact that the Agency was not able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities given Iran’s lack of cooperation.
Given these circumstances, he again urged Iran to cooperate, in order to dispel the doubts of the international community concerning the purpose of its program. We can only reiterate the Director General’s urgent appeal.
I want to reaffirm that the Director General’s report confirmed the very serious concerns of the international community and showed how urgent it was to take resolute action to respond to Iran’s lack of cooperation. It notably described Iran’s continued enrichment activities, in violation of the resolutions of the Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors and Tehran’s severe lack of cooperation with the Agency.
Thus, there is no response from Iran to the proposal for cooperation submitted to it by the countries that participated in the meeting in Vienna in October and Iran is continuing its nuclear activities. We have observed a lack of cooperation and transparency by the Iranians regarding their activities and their program, in violation of the resolutions of the Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors and lastly, we have seen a succession of evasions, various statements from the authorities in Tehran and a lack of any real response from them.
The Israeli press mentioned an American draft proposal submitted to the members of the Security Council for new sanctions against Iran. Have you received this draft resolution?
I haven’t seen any American statements on this topic, but as the President of the Republic reaffirmed, we are being forced to take the path of firmness.
Mr. Amano reaffirmed that the IAEA would continue to examine the Iranian proposal to exchange low-enriched uranium for uranium enriched to 20%, within the Iranian territory. Does France accept that?
We will have the opportunity to discuss this with him since he will be at the International Conference on Civilian Nuclear Activities on March 8 and 9, 2010, which we will present to you on Friday. We are awaiting a response from Iran to the formal proposal submitted to it.
What was the outcome of your meeting with the junta representatives?
I would like to remind you that the representatives of the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) met yesterday in Paris to attend the special session of the Permanent Council of La Francophonie on Niger. Participants included CSRD spokesman Colonel Abdoulkarim Goukoye and Lieutenant Colonel Idrissa Chaibou. They met with French diplomats, who had the opportunity to reaffirm the Council’s commitment to putting Niger back on the road of democracy and stability.
Our colleagues who met with them reiterated our attachment to the reestablishment of the rule of law in Niger through the organization of transparent, democratic elections in a timely fashion. As I said, we want to see Niger return to constitutional normality very quickly. That will come about through such elections. That’s what we stressed to our interlocutors yesterday.
We are concerned by the arrest and ongoing detention of one of your British colleagues, Paul Martin, in Gaza.
We want to express our solidarity to the British authorities and to all journalists who are continuing to work in the Gaza Strip, despite the difficult conditions.
We hail their courage and dedication to their profession.
What is your reaction to the Israeli authorities’ announcement that they were building new homes in East Jerusalem?
With respect to housing and the land use plan in Jerusalem, the announcement that several hundred homes would be built in East Jerusalem is particularly troubling. It runs counter to the spirit of the moratorium and does not help establish the climate of trust needed to foster a resumption of negotiations.
I would like to take this opportunity to recall France’s usual position, with which you are all very familiar and which I have had the opportunity to reiterate quite often: that is, that settlements are an obstacle to peace.