French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Tuesday said the US cannot "erase a civilization,” warning against conflating Iran as a country with its ruling system.
He also expressed hope that Trump would not carry out his threats, which he said could drag the region and the world into a new phase of escalation.
"You can't erase a civilization. And above all, you should not confuse Iran, which is a great country with a great people, with the Iranian regime, which is a bloodthirsty theocracy that, just a few weeks ago, gunned down its own people at point-blank range with assault rifles," he said.