We have posted elsewhere -- here, here, here, here, here, and here -- with a mixture of gravity and amusement, gloom and amazement, as Iran has overmatched and outplayed the feckless EU3, France, Germany, and Britain. French diplomatic involvement has been a boon to the catering trade, but its confuse-a-cat strategy has everyone confused but the Iranians, who know a thing or two about sham diplomacy, though to better advantage.

FRANCE ASKS IRAN FOR FULL STOP ON NUCLEAR RESEARCH

PARIS January 3, 2006 (AFP) - "We would like Iran to abide by the suspension of all activities related to the enrichment and reprocessing (of uranium) as agreed in November 2004, which includes centrifuges and research," foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei* told reporters.

TIME FOR UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO ACT ON IRAN: EU-3

BERLIN January 12, 2006 (AFP) - Britain, France and Germany said Thursday the time had come for the UN Security Council to become involved in the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme. ... French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said a meeting between Iran and the troika scheduled for January 18 had been called off as it "no longer has reason to take place." "The talks with Iran are at a dead end," [German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier] told reporters at a joint press conference after the Berlin talks.

FRENCH DEFENCE MINISTER URGES TALKS WITH IRAN
Original AFP headline: TALK OF SANCTIONS ON IRAN 'PREMATURE': FRANCE

PARIS January 16, 2006 (AFP) - French Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie** said Sunday talks should be pursued with Iran even though the country was resuming sensitive nuclear activities.

"In a situation like this, there are two options: either we will finally take steps that will isolate the country or we will try as hard as we can to talk to convince and make advances," Alliot-Marie during an RTL-Le Figaro-LCI radio and television debate. "If we allow the country to close in, it will also mean that IAEA inspectors will not know what is happening" in Iran, she said referring to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said Friday it was "premature" to speak of sanctions against Iran for resuming sensitive nuclear activities. Instead it was necessary to "proceed step by step" after Thursday's meeting of the British, German and French foreign ministers in Berlin. ... Paris would "continue consultations" with China, Russia and its European partners on the issue, the spokesman had said. [Notice someone missing?]

Alliot-Marie said that "as long as there are a number of points which allow us to believe we can make advances we have to persevere because the day when Iran will be totally closed in we will no longer know what's going on."

The cunning Mdm. le Ministre has hit on this forceful strategy of desperate talk after a two-year failed strategy of hopeful talk. Not too long ago -- before embracing a talking cure scaled to global psychoses -- Mdm. le Ministre had casually threatened nuclear incineration to any nation with the temerity to look cross-eyed at France: "Watch out, if you try to carry out your threats we will destroy you before you know what's hit you."

That's some trick. France would certainly want the legal sanction and legitimacy of a UNSCR before blowing up some nation or other. Even as France whisked her resolution unopposed through the UNSC, something is bound to make its way into the papers, which rather spoils Mdm. le Ministre's promised surprise.

Ironies abound. While Mdm. le Ministre now urges on proven failure, we find Jack, the erstwhile "guerrier de la paix", ready to resort to France's force de frappe. Hhmmm, demonstrating how a middling nation waving a middling nuclear stick can attempt outsized influence is sure to discourage middling Iran, bankrupt North Korea, and stateless insurgencies from aspiring to do the same.

CHIRAC EVOKES IDEA OF NUCLEAR RESPONSE TO 'TERRORIST' STATES

ILE LONGUE MILITARY BASE, France, January 19, 2006 (AFP) - President Jacques Chirac for the first time Thursday raised the threat of a nuclear strike on any state that launches "terrorist" attacks against France. He also said France's doctrine of nuclear deterrence has been extended to protect the country's "strategic supplies", taken to mean oil.

"Leaders of any state that uses terrorist means against us, as well as any that may be envisaging — in one way or another — using weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would be exposing themselves to a firm and appropriate response on our behalf," he said. "That response could be conventional, it could also be of another nature," Chirac said in a clear reference to nuclear weapons during a visit to a French nuclear base in the northwestern region of Brittany. The French press understood "strategic supplies" to include oil. Le Monde newspaper said that was aimed "probably also at those countries from which France imports part of its energy needs".

Oh my, then France is all about the oil. Of course, like you, we are completely surprised. But more surprising still, we have read the minatory mush of Jack's speech in its entirety and there is no mention, not a tittle, of France checking in with the UNSC before setting the world to flame. The actions described in the speech sound rather freewheeling. Unilateral. And pre-emptive. Is Jack winking at the hollowness of French principles or the emptiness of French threats?

Whichever it is, key French allies are not too happy with Cowboy Jack:

The comments also raised heckles in Germany, from both opposition and ruling coalition parties and the press, although there was no official comment from the coalition government led by Conservative Angela Merkel. For the opposition, Green deputy Winfried Nachtwei said Chirac's comments were "totally adventurous" and "irresponsible".

"I fear that these comments will not help the international community achieve the highest level of solidarity," Andreas Schockenhoff, the deputy president of Merkel's parliamentary party, said in an interview with the Friday edition of the regional daily Koelner Stadtanzeiger.

The German daily Westdeutsche Zeitung in Duesseldorf:

"Chirac's threat is not only unwise, but also counterproductive.. . Because it leads to believe that diplomatic means are very limited in the face of nuclear ambitions."

The German economic daily Handelsblatt:

"The president can't seriously believe that, by eyeing the nuclear stick, he can hide the failure of diplomacy," said [the paper], callling Chirac's remarks "counterproductive."

The British daily Guardian:

"[Chirac] clearly knew that his comments would create a global frisson. Their content and timing could hardly have been worse. ... The implied warning to states which back terrorists or may use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons (stated explicitly for the first time) echoes George Bush's ideas about pre-emption and nuclear strategy - ironic in the light of the deep differences between the two countries about how to fight al-Qaida type terrorists who no longer enjoy the protection of states - as well as Britain's more ambiguous approach. ... As President Chirac quipped memorably of someone else in a different context: he missed an excellent opportunity to shut up."

The Spanish daily El Pais:

"Whether he wanted to or not, Chirac is playing the game of the Bush administration," which would like to make it diplomatically easier to envisage nuclear action... The French leader's comments "do little for the fight against proliferation" of nuclear arms "at a delicate time faced with the challenge of Iran," it added.

Of course, the intended target of Jack's remarks remains unimpressed with all the French big talk:

FRANCE DRAWS IRANIAN IRE OVER 'SHAMEFUL' NUCLEAR WARNING

TEHRAN January 22, 2006 (AFP) - "It is shameful for the people of France that their president brandishes atomic weapons on the pretext of fighting terrorism," said Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, speaker of Iran's right-wing parliament. ... But Hadad-Adel said the French president was merely "trying to restore the prestige of France after the recent unrest, when young people took to the streets and torched hundreds of cars every night. ... The French need to make an effort to remove the shame of the massacre of millions of Algerians, France's support for Saddam Hussein and the massacres in Africa and Rwanda," Hadad-Adel said in a speech to deputies carried by state radio.

The Iranian Jomhuri Islami:

"His remarks mean the French government would use the atomic bomb to oppress the ones who seek liberty," the paper said in a comment that could be seen as alluding to Iran's support for Palestinian militants. "Everybody knows they label anyone who opposes their exploitative and colonial demands as terrorists, and that any country sheltering such people and supports them is named a supporter of terorists," the paper wrote. "(Chirac) has unveiled the true face of the West," it said, asking why Iran should "still wait for negotiations" over its own nuclear programme.

Yes, Jack's bottled up the Iranians nicely. La France, elle rends le monde sûr pour la France.

* Where have you heard of M. Mattei before? See footnote here.

** The dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.

PFFT (What is this?): Scary Jack 3 | Rayonnement français 0

Hey ab/ay good luck to your country in Iran. Good luck with your "strategic supplies". Good luck in your blood for oil, after all you had such poor luck in your palaces for oil participation once we ended your sweetheart deals. Good luck when the wind blows the fallout back over your country.

Bonjour,

Comme notre nucléaire fonctionne (nous n'avons jamais eu de "Three Milles Islands" nous !) et que c'est le premier au Monde ,nous ne pouvons que nous réjouir de la hausse du pétrole.Cela nous permettra de vous vendre (fort cher) une technique que ,visiblement, vous ne maîtrisez pas.C'est déjà d'ailleurs le cas ,vos piétres ingénieurs nucléaires viennent boire à la source ces techniques que nous leur vendons.(Voir un article récent du "Figaro").

Good luck for your country in Irak ,Bolivia et for your catastrophic GM !

nous n'avons jamais eu de "Three Milles Islands" nous !

Posted by AntiBrits/Antiyankees at January 31, 2006 05:50 AM

M. AB/AY,

How would you ever know?

DGB

Bonjour,

Nouveau Tchernobyl est en France maintenant ? On connait les officines montées par les Yankees pour nous nuire (Green Peace , Transparency (mdr) International ...).Personne ne les croit en France...

Good luck for your catastrophic GM and your catastrophic nuclear industry !

Bonjour,

.(Voir un article récent du "Figaro").

email me and I will email you back on how to link......Or, if you know how to link, link this article.