Meeting at the Élysée Without Wine; Controversies Surrounding Rouhani's Trip to France

"Halal food without wine"; this was the condition set by the Iranian government for Hassan Rouhani and his accompanying delegation to attend a lunch hosted by François Hollande, the President of France, at the Élysée Palace. French media report that the Élysée's response to this request was firm: "Wine is part of French culture, and we will never remove it from our dining table." However, the first visit of an Iranian president to France in about 15 years is so significant that instead of lunch, he was offered a breakfast gathering. Well, even the French do not drink wine at breakfast. Ham made from pork can also be replaced with jam and French croissants. But this time it was Iran's turn to firmly state that replacing a lunch banquet with a regular breakfast is not befitting of the Islamic Republic's president. Iraj Adibzadeh, a journalist in Paris, says that although for some media and Iranian social media users, this incident has become a marginal issue, for the French, it is a matter of "protocol." Mr. Adibzadeh tells Radio Farda: "This is a historic and unassailable protocol in France that when the president of the country holds a lunch or dinner in honor of a foreign counterpart, wine and French food must be on the table. Imagine halal food being served at the Élysée! Such a thing is intolerable for the French people." This journalist explains that the issue of "halal meat" in France is only specific to Arabs and Muslims, but such a thing has no relevance for the French. Perhaps this is why one of the advisors to the French president told Le Monde that the whole affair is "really ridiculous." However, apparently, for the Islamic Republic, this issue is not a joke at all. Iraj Adibzadeh recalls that this very problem caused the visit of Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, to France in 1999 to be delayed for a long time. During that visit, although Jacques Chirac, the French president, warmly welcomed Mr. Khatami, due to the Iranian opposition to serving wine at the tables, the lunch banquet was canceled and a simple evening snack was settled for. Mr. Adibzadeh states that the Iranian government is particularly stricter on this issue than even Muslim Arabs. To prove this point, "Radio Europe 1," a French radio station, reported that during past visits of the Emir of Qatar and the King of Saudi Arabia to France, bottles of the best and oldest wines from the palace's underground cellar were opened for them. This radio added in its report: "It is the Iranians who are inflexible." It seems that the only issue on which there is no disagreement regarding Hassan Rouhani's upcoming trip to France is the new chapter of economic cooperation between the two countries after the nuclear agreement, which could be worth hundreds of millions and perhaps even billions of euros.