The World - News from Nov. 5, 1987
French President Francois Mitterrand knew of illegal munitions sales to Iran for almost two years but failed to halt them, according to a classified report published by two Parisian newspapers. The report, commissioned by Andre Giraud, defense minister in the center-right government of Premier Jacques Chirac, was printed by the conservative newspaper Le Figaro and the independent daily Le Monde despite its being classified as confidential. According to the report, the previous Socialist administration sold Iran an estimated 500,000 artillery shells between 1983 and 1986 in deals that may have been used to swell Mitterrand’s Socialist Party coffers. The party has angrily denied benefiting from the sales.
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