Israel's
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Likud party
meeting at the
Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem November 7, 2011.
(Credit:
Reuters/Baz Ratner)
|
(Reuters) -
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told U.S. President Barack Obama last week he
was fed up with dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
considered him a liar.
Sarkozy
made the comment during a private conversation with Obama during a G20 summit
in the French riviera town of Cannes last week and the remarks were overheard
by a small number of journalists but not initially reported.
"I
cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama during a frank
exchange where the U.S. president took him to task for backing a Palestinian
request for membership of the U.N. cultural heritage agency UNESCO.
A Reuters
reporter was among the journalists present and can confirm the veracity of the
comments, which were relayed by a French internet outlet on Tuesday.
Obama said
he had to deal regularly with Netanyahu even if Sarkozy was fed up with the
Israeli leader, according to the translation of a French interpreter during
their Cannes exchange.
In their
quest for statehood recognition, the Palestinians have requested membership of
the over-arching United Nations system, in addition to its Paris-based UNESCO
subsidiary.
France
voted in favor of a UNESCO request that succeeded but said last week it would
abstain in any vote on membership of the over-arching U.N. system, which
Washington has vowed to veto. Paris and Washington are urging renewed peace
talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.
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