Teheran summons French ambassador over Sarkozy's Israel remarks

France said that Iran summoned its ambassador to protest French President Nicolas Sarkozy's criticism this week of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The French Foreign Ministry said that French ambassador Bernard Poletti was summoned on Wednesday to the Iranian Foreign Ministry. In a speech about human rights Monday, Sarkozy said he had told former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that "it is impossible for me to shake hands with someone who dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map." Desagneaux said that the ambassador reiterated France's opinion that Ahmadinejad's statement regarding Israel was "unacceptable."