France: Tougher than anyone else on Iran

Well, that was “a fiasco,” said El Diario Montañes (Spain) in an editorial. In Geneva last week, the P5-plus-1—the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.) plus Germany—were close to a deal with Iran that would lift some sanctions in return for inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, rushed to the talks at short notice to midwife what was widely expected to be a breakthrough pact with their Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. But then French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius “appointed himself spokesman” for the group and “blew up the possibility of a compromise.” Was France trying to appease Saudi Arabia “as it negotiates a multimillion-dollar military arms deal with the Arab country most hostile to Iran?” If so, it should find a better way than “dynamiting a promising agreement.”

Fabius apparently “isn’t entirely sure that Iran is serious,” said Thorsten Knuf in the Berliner Zeitung (Germany). He has good reason to be skeptical. Iran, remember, was believed to be behind the pro-Palestinian bombings in Paris in the mid-1980s, when Fabius was prime minister. Yet his opposition isn’t just personal, said Renaud Girard in Le Figaro (France). France doubts Iran’s need for a heavy-water reactor at Arak, because there is simply “no civilian use for fissile plutonium.” And France is correct to question Iran’s stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium. It’s supposedly intended for radiation treatment for cancer, but Iran already has so much of it that “Iranian doctors could treat the Middle East for centuries.” Now that France has showed firmness, it must also show flexibility and “recognize the Iranians’ inalienable right to enrichment, even help them develop nuclear power for electricity.” After all, it’s hard to argue why our ally the United Arab Emirates should have a nuclear power plant and the Iranians should not.

France’s role as spoilsport is probably exaggerated, said Gudrun Harrer inDer Standard (Austria). Kerry claims that the Western negotiators are totally united and that Iranian intransigence killed the deal, and that may be true. Still, it’s undeniable that France “functions as the representative for the interests of Arab Gulf states” at the talks. Those states certainly have legitimate concerns, but sticking to a hard line isn’t necessarily the way to allay them. The Arak reactor, for example, is not yet finished. “The question is, what is more likely to stop it”—an imperfect deal, or no deal at all? “Surely not no deal.” Hopefully when negotiations resume later this month, France will ease up a bit.

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In the meantime, American hawks just love France, said Corine Lesnes in Le Monde (France). On national television, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) prayed, “Thank God for France,” while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) actually cheered, “Vive la France!” Rick Grenell, the man who coined the term “freedom fries” as the U.S. spokesman at the U.N. in 2003, when France was opposing the Iraq War, actually tweeted that he was now eating french fries. “This is an upside-down world.”