Either the BBC is stupid, or its lying again

Latest BBC headline: Snowden case: France apologises in Bolivia plane row.  Then this, further down the article:The French foreign ministry issued a statement on the incident. Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: "The foreign minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France's regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales' plane to fly over [French] territory."

In diplomatic language, "regrets" mean something very specific.  It means that you are saddened by what happened, even though you had no responsibility for it.  "Apologies" mean that you did something wrong and that you accept the fault and responsibility for it.

So far, the French have only expressed "regrets". So?!  The governments of New Zealand, Togo and  Finland could also express "regrets".  In essence, such an admission is meaningless.  Later, if the proverbial bovine excreta really hits the fan, the French might also apologize, but for the BBC to lump these two concepts into one is absolutely ridiculous.

We will see that UNASUR decides tomorrow.  My personal recommendation would be for all the countries of Latin America to jointly expel the French, Italian and Portuguese ambassadors and let them return only if they present an official and total apology.

But, of course, nobody asked me :-)

The Saker