The new French Government has been talking tough on Iran from Day One.
Not sure what they see has their interests there, but they probably do stand to gain if they can help broker peace in Iraq and play European bad cop on Iran. Nearly everyone in the region agrees that civil war and a stronger Iran are bad things. World insiders say that the US is too hamstrung by war politics to take a strong enough leadership role.
The French are deeply patriotic and can be very tough militarily if properly riled. They benefit by filling even a small part of the vacuum, which certainly exists at the moment.
A minority of the population. But hopefully growing under Sarkozy.