Chirac angry over broadcast of talk with Zapatero

12 September 2006

HELSINKI — French President Jacques Chirac criticised French television channels on Tuesday for airing his conversation with Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero about Lebanon on the sidelines of an international summit.

“They were words which I was careless enough to utter without realising that they were being purely and simply stolen,” Chirac said at a news conference at the Europe-Asia summit in Helsinki.

“One does not have the right to use this kind of things in such a frivolous manner on subjects which can have consequences of the lives of men and notably of Frenchmen.”

Chirac was shown on French television telling Zapatero the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon could become “dangerous” once the Hezbollah militia had time to recover from the recent Israeli offensive.

“In my opinion there won’t be any problem for two or three months because Hezbollah is a little weaker,” Chirac had told Zapatero. “But in three, four, five months it could be dangerous. I am a little worried for the future.”

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news