The crazy French

The mind boggles.

Speaking in Beirut, where he met yesterday with his Iranian counterpart, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said this: "In the region there is of course a country such as Iran -- a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region."

He's kidding, right? Or is he crazy? It's one thing to be polite in diplomatic circles, quite another to speak so positively of a country that is developing a nuclear program in flagrant violation of the U.N.; that has threatened Israel's very existence; that funds, supports, and arms Hezbollah; that promotes instability in Iraq; that has aspirations to regional hegemony; and that may have started this whole mess to divert attention away from its nuclear program. More, a country led by a madman president and authoritarian theocrats, a country that oppresses its people, a country that will try to block any attempt to bring peace to the Middle East, a country that celebrates Hugo Chavez.

I suspect that Douste-Blazy wasn't referring to, say, film director Abbas Kiarostami, one of the world's best, or to any of the other famous Iranians who have made their (distinguished) mark on the world stage throughout history. He must have been referring to Ahmadinejad and the other rulers of present-day Iran.

Iran may very well be home to a great and respected civilization. Its people may be great, too. But there's nothing admirable about the leadership in Tehran. To say that Iran "plays a stabilizing role in the region" is to indicate that you are delusional, mendacious, malevolent, or some combination of the three. France, once a proud nation, evidently has nothing much left to offer the world with respect to moral leadership. It certainly has nothing to offer with respect to the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. If all it can do is cozy up to Iran, it would do better to leave well enough alone.

What a revolting spectacle.