Paris, Sep 17 (DPA) French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has warned the world to prepare for a war over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Interviewed on French television about Iran late Sunday, Kouchner said, “We must prepare for the worst.” Asked what the worst was, he replied, “It is war.”
Kouchner said there was “no greater crisis today” than that over Teheran’s developing nuclear programme.
“We will not accept that this (nuclear) bomb will be built,” he declared, for this would represent “a real danger for the entire world”.
Iran has steadfastly declared that its nuclear programme was intended exclusively for the production of energy and not arms.
Kouchner also called on the European Union to impose economic sanctions on Tehran outside of those imposed by the United Nations.
Kouchner’s warning on Iran followed the line taken by President Nicolas Sarkozy in an Aug 27 speech in which he warned that the Iranian nuclear crisis presented the world with “a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran”.