Paris Fuming Over Reported Rabin Blast at French Troops

France and the United Nations fumed Wednesday over Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s reported description of French troops as “the biggest bastards” in the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

“These accusations are coarse, unfounded and unjustified,” French External Relations Minister Roland Dumas said through a spokeswoman in Paris.

“I can’t see what the Israelis are complaining about,” added Timor Goksel, the spokesman for UNIFIL, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

“They have full run of the place,” Goksel said, referring to Israeli troops who have occupied southern Lebanon since 1982. “They blow up houses, raid villages, arrest people by the scores. They are an occupying force and do what they want. So who’s interfering?”

Rabin, in remarks Tuesday to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, reportedly said UNIFIL troops hamper Israeli raids on Shia Muslim guerrilla strongholds near the Lebanese port of Tyre.

“The French in the force are the biggest bastards,” Rabin told the committee, according to Israeli news reports. The committee meets in private, but its proceedings are routinely leaked to reporters.

At least twice recently, Israeli soldiers confronted French troops during raids on Shia villages.

French and Israeli troops shoved each other angrily Feb. 14 in Borj Rahhal, when the French tried to stop the Israelis from bulldozing houses of suspected Shia guerrillas.

In another case, an Israeli soldier was reported to have hoisted a French soldier into the air with a bulldozer.

French Regret Expressed

In Paris, the government said Dumas expressed “regret over aggressive actions committed against French soldiers by the Israeli army.” France has about 900 soldiers in the 5,800-member UNIFIL contingent.

Ovadia Soffer, Israel’s ambassador to France, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Paris to explain Rabin’s comments. He later told reporters there was “no quarrel” between French troops and the withdrawing Israeli forces.

He acknowledged there had been “regrettable incidents” and reiterated Israel’s intention to retaliate if attacked by guerrillas.

“Our army must defend itself against terrorist attacks staged by Shia elements who are the common enemies of France, Israel and the free world,” Soffer said.