PARIS: Israeli athletes are welcome at the Paris Olympics, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Monday, after a hard-left member of the French parliament sparked outrage by urging them to stay away.
“The Israeli delegation is welcome in France,” Sejourne said in Brussels ahead of talks with his Israeli counterpart, adding that the call by France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes for the country’s exclusion had been “irresponsible and dangerous.”
“We will ensure the security of the delegation,” Sejourne added.
Portes drew ire from French Jewish groups and both political opponents and allies for saying Israeli athletes were “not welcome” and calling for “mobilization” around the Olympics, during a demonstration in support of Palestinians.
He later told the Parisien newspaper that “France’s diplomats should pressure the International Olympic Committee to bar the Israeli flag and anthem, as is done for Russia” over its invasion of Ukraine.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the comments had “hints of anti-Semitism” while the head of the Crif Jewish organization Yonathan Arfi said he was “putting a target on the backs” of Israeli athletes.
Portes’ remarks were condemned at the weekend by some allies from the more moderate Socialists, but backed by others in LFI.
France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics
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France says Israeli athletes ‘welcome’ at Olympics
Machado says Venezuelan elections could happen this year, Politico reports
- “We have a legitimate leadership with huge popular support and our armed forces are also supportive of a transition to democracy,” Machado told Politico
- Trump in January said he was considering getting Machado “involved some way“
WASHINGTON: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she believed elections could be held in her country later this year, speaking to Politico in an interview released on Thursday.
“We believe that a real transferring process with manual voting … could be done in nine to 10 months,” Machado said. “But, well, that depends when you start.”
Machado, whose party said it won 70 percent of the vote in Venezuela’s 2024 election, met with President Donald Trump and spoke with his top diplomat and US lawmakers last month following the US capture of the country’s longtime leader Nicolas Maduro.
“We have a legitimate leadership with huge popular support and our armed forces are also supportive of a transition to democracy,” she told Politico.
Trump in January said he was considering getting Machado “involved some way” even as he has backed Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez.
Machado told Politico that she had not yet spoken to Trump about the election process. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US lawmakers at a Jan. 28 hearing that Venezuela’s new leaders were moving toward closer ties with Washington before meeting with Machado later that day.
US intelligence reports have questioned whether Rodriguez is fully on board with the strategy for her country and if she intends to formally cut ties with US adversaries, Reuters reported last month.
