February 04, 2008	Monday	Muharram 25, 1429

TEHRAN, Feb 3: Iran summoned the French ambassador on Sunday in a tit-for-tat protest at a similar move by Paris over a new anti-Israeli tirade by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a further sign of strained relations.

Tensions have been mounting over France’s tougher line on the controversial Iranian nuclear drive, and Tehran has also lashed out at plans by Paris for a military base in the Gulf.

On Friday, the French government called in the Iranian ambassador to Paris, Ali Ahani, to “firmly condemn” a new outburst against the Jewish state by Ahmadinejad, who said the days of the “filthy Zionist entity” were numbered.

Iran’s state-run television confirmed that French ambassador Bernard Poletti had been summoned by the foreign ministry in response. “We object to this summons,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. “We will show our protest by summoning the French ambassador.”

Hosseini also hit out at the government of French President Nicolas Sarkozy for its tougher line in the long-running nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.

“We have so far acted with self-restraint but if the French stance continues along these lines, we will revise our approach to them,” Hosseini said, describing the French position as “unfriendly, irrational and unrealistic”.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin on Thursday cast doubt on a US report that Tehran had halted a suspected nuclear weapons drive.—AFP