President Jacques Chirac of France engendered doubts about French policy and his own condition by making indiscreet remarks about Iran’s nuclear programme in an interview with three papers last Monday and then retracting them the next day.

It would be foolish for the Bush administration or other allies of France to over-react to Chirac’s assertion that an Iran armed with one or two bombs “is not very dangerous.” The French foreign policy establishment has followed a consistent, sensible line on Iran. Indeed, the office of the French presidency issued a communiqué last Thursday reaffirming France’s position on Iran. “France, along with the international community, cannot accept the prospect of an Iran with nuclear weapons,” it said.

Strangely, Chirac’s most emphatic apology was for his assertion that Tehran would be “razed” the moment it launched a nuclear missile. Ghoulish as it may sound, that is the basis of nuclear deterrence. Chirac was invoking a much less certain instrument of deterrence when he said an Iranian bomb, “at the moment it was launched, obviously, would be destroyed immediately.” Fortunately, Chirac’s unscripted comments do not reflect French policy, which still offers the best hope for a peaceful, diplomatic resolution of the Iranian nuclear challenge.