France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner criticized the United States on Tuesday for boycotting the United Nations conference on racism which featured a verbal attack on Israel launched by Iran's president.
France, which has strong diplomatic and business ties with the Middle East, joined the walk-out of delegates after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel cruel and racist in a speech on Monday, but then returned to the meeting. Kouchner said it was wrong of the U.S. to shun the conference after announcing it was open for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.