The chief executive of Orange has backtracked after he told a conference in Cairo earlier in the week that he would take the telecoms giant out of Israel “tomorrow”.
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronat this morning, Stephane Richard said his comments had been “misunderstood”, adding: “I love Israel”.
Although Orange still intends to pull out of Israel, Mr Richard said that this was nothing to do with a boycott but for entirely commercial reasons.
Mr Richard said: “I am strongly offended by the idea that anyone would think that we want to leave Israel for political reasons… I meant that it was not our policy to permit use of the brand when we are not the operators.”
