Posted on 05/23/2007 2:01:54 PM PDT by Cincinna
French President Nicholas Sarkozy called Wednesday for sanctions on Iran to be tightened if the country does not adhere to the West's demands to cease its nuclear agenda.
If Iran attains nuclear weapons, Sarkozy warned, a road to an arms race will be paved that could endanger Israel and southeast Europe, he said during an interview with a German magazine. "We were indeed surprised by several comments from Mr. ElBaradei over the weekend," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei. "We share the gist of concerns expressed by our American partners - along with several other partners, for that matter." Over the past two weeks, ElBaradei has publicly said he believes it is too late to force Teheran to scrap its enrichment program as demanded by the Security Council, and argued instead for implementing inspection safeguards to prevent an expansion of the program.
"I can confirm that our permanent representative in Vienna will take part in the American initiative," Mattei said, referring to the Austrian capital where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based.
Mattei also took issue with ElBaradei's recent reference to French intelligence about the speed of Iran's nuclear program, without providing details.
"In addition, the IAEA director-general referred, in one of his public statements, to analyses from French intelligence services over the time that it would take Iran to have access to a nuclear weapon," Mattei said. "We aren't in the habit of releasing national intelligence analyses publicly - much less through an international organization."
Despite ElBaradei's recent comments, on Wednesday he released a report saying that Iran continues to defy UN Security Council demands to scrap its uranium enrichment program and has instead expanded its activities.
ElBaradei also faulted Teheran for blocking IAEA efforts to probe suspicious nuclear activities, saying that meant it could not "provide assurances about... the exclusively peaceful nature" of its atomic program.
And, in new and worrying phrasing, it expressed concern about its "deteriorating" understanding of unexplored aspects of the program, despite four years of a probe sparked by revelations that Teheran had been clandestinely developing enrichment and other nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons for nearly two decades.
The report, one of a series keeping the IAEA's 35-nation board and the Security Council up to date on the agency's monitoring efforts, was posted simultaneously on the IAEA internal website and handed over to the president of the Security Council for distribution among its members.
Sarkozy announced that France will join the official US-led struggle against head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei, who recommended that Iran be allowed to enrich uranium in some of its nuclear plants.
On Tuesday, American officials urged allies to back a formal protest against ElBaradei, saying his comments could hurt UN Security Council efforts to pressure Teheran over its enrichment program.
The brevity of the 4-page report indirectly reflected the lack of progress agency inspectors had made clearing up unresolved issues, among them; Iran's possession of diagrams showing how to form uranium into warhead form; unexplained uranium contamination at a research facility; information on high explosives experiments that could be linked to a nuclear program and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle.
Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be taking the lead in dealing with Iran and Lebanon. France has changed in just one short week.
This just in from The Tocqueville Connection
http://www.ttc.org/200705231436.l4neaq824914.htm
FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER KOUCHNER TO PAY VISIT TO LEBANON
- France’s new Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will pay a visit to Lebanon on Thursday and Friday to show solidarity with Beirut at “this critical time”, the foreign ministry said.
Kouchner will be making his first visit to the Middle East since his appointment to the rightwing government of President Nicolas Sarkozy last week.
“His visit is aimed at asserting France’s solidarity with Lebanon and with its people, at this critical time,” said a foreign ministry statement.
An estimated 10,000 refugees have fled a battered Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon since the two sides halted fire on Tuesday after three days of gunbattles between government troops and a shadowy extremist group.
The Lebanese government has vowed to crush the “terrorist phenomenon” of Fatah al-Islam, a group of Sunni Islamists which emerged only late last year.
Kouchner, a prominent leftwinger and humanitarian, is due to meet with Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, parliament speaker Nabih Berri and other leading politicians.
Siniora’s rump anti-Syrian cabinet has received staunch backing from France since the departure of six pro-Damascus ministers last November.
Former president Jacques Chirac was a close friend of billionaire Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in a 2005 bombing widely blamed on Syria.
Time to mobilize the French riot police.
Kick butt, Sarko!
Alright. But let's see some ACTION now. See what kinds of ACTIONS Sarko authorizes.
This is pFrance...right?
This isn't from the Onion...is it?
Hey just the fact that he’s willing to talk the talk is a big step in the right direction for France.
So maybe Sarkozy doesn’t have his hand in Irans wallet like Chirac did.
Hopefully this is the start of someone who is real and not just a crooked P.O.S.
I literally get giddy when I think about this guy running France.
Buy French; we were very tough on them when they were no with us; we MUST show our support now. Buy French! Visit Paris (except in summer).
Go, Sarko. They elected a man, not a surrender monkey! Quelle surprise.
France better have very good “Secret Service” protection for Sarkozy and his family. Not long before some local Mohammedans start gunning for him
- ‘Sarko’ is, without a doubt, one of the most popular men in France today. He probably stands a very good chance of becoming the most popular European in the US too...
Europe will not slumber forever.
This is an amazing turnaround. France standing up to the anti-Israel, pro-Arab, anti-American UN.
Sarkozy is no Chirac, and Kouchner no Villepin.
This just in from The Tocqueville Connection:
http://www.ttc.org/200705231203.l4nc3sn09377.htm
FRANCE JOINS US PROTEST OVER UN NUCLEAR CHIEF’S COMMENTS ON IRAN
- France will add its voice to protests by the United States over UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei’s comments that Iran should be allowed to keep some uranium enrichment, officials said Wednesday.
“Our permanent representative in Vienna will join the American initiative,” said a foreign ministry spokesman. “We share, along with several other partners, the substance of the concerns expressed by our American partners.”
The United States is seeking to protest directly to ElBaradei for saying in recent newspaper interviews that Iran should be allowed to keep some uranium enrichment, diplomats said in Vienna, the headquarters of International Atomic Energy Agency.
“France continues to support the process undertaken by the (UN) Security Council, including insisting on suspension (of uranium enrichment) and, if there is no suspension, sanctions,” said France’s foreign ministry spokesman.
The United States leads Western nations in insisting that Iran freeze all enrichment work in order to start talks on trade, security and technology benefits in return for Tehran guaranteeing it will not seek nuclear weapons.
Enrichment is hugely sensitive because the process can be used to make the core of an atom bomb as well as nuclear fuel.
Iran refuses to abandon enrichment as it says it needs to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to eventually produce electricity.
ElBaradei told The New York Times on May 15 that Iran has progressed in its enrichment work, as it not only defies UN resolutions but expands its enrichment capacity.
“From a proliferation perspective, the fact of the matter is that one of the purposes of suspension (of uranium enrichment) — keeping them from getting the knowledge — has been overtaken by events,” he said.
ElBaradei said “the focus should be to stop them from going to industrial scale production,” rather than expecting the Iranians to stop all enrichment.
I like this guy already!
Excellent start for Sarkozy :)
Time to buy some import CDs of Emilie Simon...
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