France's newly-appointed ambassador to Israel described Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "lout" and said the Jewish state was "paranoid" during a recent cocktail party in Paris, the Yediot Aharonot reported Sunday.
| Might as well start your new post with a resounding "Aw, shit!" |
The ambassador, Gerard Araud - who is due to take up his post in September - immediately denied the accusations, according to a brief statement released by the French foreign ministry.
| "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope. Nope..." |
A correspondent for Yediot Aharonot, Boaz Bissmuth, said he had overhead a conversation between Araud and two other veteran diplomats in the gardens of the French foreign ministry in Paris. The journalist said he then introduced himself to the incoming ambassador, who said: "You don't intend to write that," explaining that his comments were made during a private party and thus not in the public domain. However, Bissmuth wrote he believed that the comments "were sufficiently serious" to warrant their publication. In a statement, French foreign ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said: "Gerard Araud denies in the most formal way all of the comments attributed to him by an Israeli journalist with respect to the state of Israel and its prime minister." Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnant told public radio that Israel should not sign Araud's letter of accreditation if the French diplomat had indeed used the words ascribed to him. "But we must verify what he said," the minister added. |