Never mind Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” or the fact that Iran funds and supports Hizballah.

French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy says Iran is a respected, stabilizing force in the Middle East.

Iran is a significant, respected player in the Middle East which is playing a stabilizing role, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Monday, during a visit to Lebanon.

“It was clear that we could never accept a destabilization of Lebanon, which could lead to a destabilization of the region,” Douste-Blazy said in Beirut.

“In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region,” he told a news conference.

And France is the country that is supposed to guard Israel’s northern border.

UPDATE at 7/31/06 8:20:52 am:

An example of Iran’s stabilizing force: Iran likens Israelis to Hitler after attack on Qana.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has stepped up verbal attacks on Israel, declaring after the deadly raid on the Lebanese village of Qana that Israeli officials would suffer a fate worse than that of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Iranian state television quoted Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar saying that a “fate worse than those of Hitler and Saddam awaits Zionist criminals and their supporters.”