Posted on 09/19/2007 4:46:28 AM PDT by Schnucki
Ahead of key international meetings this week, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner shocked diplomats with talk of war.
Paris - In a bid to vault itself into a more assertive role on Iran's international obligations over its uranium enrichment program, traditionally moderate France has suddenly started talking tough.
As the new face of French diplomacy, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has certainly scored world attention by raising the specter of war with Iran and calling for strong European sanctions on Tehran. "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war," he said Sunday on RTL radio.
Mr. Kouchner's words shocked some diplomats, aggravated others, and caught Europeans by surprise, though they now appear orchestrated ahead of key international meetings in Vienna and Washington this week.
Tehran immediately accused France of being a "translator of White House policy." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after meeting with Kouchner in Moscow Tuesday, reiterated Russia's concern with increasingly frequent mention of the use of force against Iran.
Indeed, the French government of Nicolas Sarkozy continues to make waves in foreign affairs, attempting to break with the low-impact diplomatic status France was not enjoying in recent years.
A French high-profile framing of the Iran nuclear issue – sanctions or a disastrous war – dates to an equally surprising talk Sarkozy gave Aug. 27. The president, in an annual meeting with French ambassadors, described a dual approach on Iran as "the only one that can enable us to avoid being faced with an alternative that I call catastrophic: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
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