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How did France become more hawkish on Iran than the U.S.?
(CNN) Not so long ago, France was nothing but a lily-livered punch line in Washington.
So it has surprised some to see it emerge as the tough-talking bad cop in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
A decade ago, conservatives loved to mock France as a symbol of weakness, 'effete' liberal internationalism and what they regarded as "Old Europe" appeasement of hostile forces in the Middle East.
But French-U.S. relations have traveled a long way since the days when America's oldest ally was lambasted Simpsons-style as a home for "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and Capitol Hill menus listed "Freedom Fries."
Twelve years after that estrangement, sparked by Paris's opposition to the Iraq war, France has shifted from being to the dovish left of America on key foreign policy questions to its hawkish right.
This new trend is playing out in Switzerland, where France is adopting a firmer public line on the deadline-busting nuclear talks with Iran than the Obama administration -- which by comparison looks much more eager for a deal.
While Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met yet again Wednesday to thrash out an agreement long past its Tuesday midnight deadline, the top French negotiator left and spent most of the day in Paris.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, said on Wednesday that "things have progressed, but not enough" to produce an immediate deal.
"We want there to be an agreement, there's no doubt about that, (but) this agreement can only happen if it is robust and verifiable," he said, speaking in French. A French source said that late Wednesday Fabius headed back to Lausanne, where the talks are taking place.
Though what France has said behind closed doors at the negotiations remains unknown, Paris is now seen as more skeptical of the chances of a firmly binding Iran deal than the Obama administration, which has invested enormous political capital in the agreement and faces intense opposition from Republicans back in Washington.
In fact, the end-of-the-March milestone seems more rooted in President Barack Obama's need to show progress as skeptics in Congress fight to kill the deal than representing a true inflexion point in a negotiating process that has as its final deadline June 30.
There are signs that the French believe that Washington could in fact get a better political deal than the one that is currently on the table.
"The French understand the value of time, and essentially they know that the longer this goes on, within reason, the more reasons the Iranians have to give things up," said Atlantic Council senior fellow Nicholas Dungan.
"The French feel that we can ask for an agreement on specifics which the Iranians might be reluctant to give but which the French believe they probably will give in order to get the deal done."
And France isn't just playing the bad cop role for the sake of stiffening negotiations -- it has its own unique view of power politics in the Middle East.
For one thing, it has been burned by Iran before.
Paris has actually been engaging Tehran on its nuclear program for years longer than the U.S., and therefore has had more time to see its expectations dashed. It was part of negotiations with Iran along with Germany and Britain in 2004 and 2005. And it learned hard lessons when it was revealed in September 2009, during a visit to the United States by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, that Iran had built an underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow -- despite previous denials.
"The French do not necessarily trust the commitment that the Iranians might actually engage in," said Guillaume Xavier-Bender, a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
"They don't trust that every element will be respected because of their history of negotiation with the Iranians -- they have been deceived multiple times."
That French preoccupation was revealed in an earlier stage of the current round of nuclear talks with Iran that now also include the U.S., Russia and China.
Washington was angered at France's last-minute reluctance to sign on to an interim nuclear deal that was finally agreed to in late 2013.
Back then, Fabius insisted on the toughening of language on Iran's right to enrich uranium and on its plutonium reactor at Arak, changes to a draft deal that Washington later embraced.
There are also broader political and diplomatic forces at work between France and the United States behind the scenes, which, according to both sides, have brought relations to their strongest point in years, the differences over the Iran negotiations not withstanding.
France has emerged as Washington's most reliable European partner in power projection outside its backyard, better even than Washington's 'special relationship' ally Britain.
A fundamental shift in French foreign policy took place after the Iraq meltdown when Sarkozy took power.
"Some of it was down to diplomatic tactics and some of it was a genuine policy decision," said Dungan, author of a forthcoming book titled "Why France Matters."
"One of the reasons why the U.S. could be suspicious or dismissive of France was that it could say 'the French aren't going to fight,'" he said.
"Right away on taking office, Sarkozy took a much harder line."
So in 2011, it was the conservative Sarkozy who led the charge on Western intervention in Libya to avert what was seen as a possible massacre by Moamer Gadhaffi's forces in Benghazi and convinced Obama to join in.
The trend continued when the socialist Francois Hollande became president in 2012, only to be embarrassed when Obama climbed down from threats to punish Syria for chemical weapons violations while French pilots were strapped into their cockpits to begin bombing runs.
Nevertheless, France was the first European nation to send its planes into the skies over Iraq to bomb ISIS alongside American jets this fall.
Paris also has a narrow self-interest at play in Switzerland that also shapes its hawkish stance.
It's a longtime member of the nuclear club and any widening of the membership -- and a possible Middle Eastern arms race -- would tarnish its own relative prestige and power.
And there may also be some wounded feelings at play. Though they are under an international umbrella, the Iran nuclear talks have effectively boiled down to a bilateral negotiation between longtime enemies Washington and Tehran -- with Europe partially sidelined.
So France's pride dictates that it is unlikely to accept any outcome that appears imposed by the United States.
But that desire to preserve its own primacy in transatlantic affairs is also the reason, experts said, that France would never totally derail nuclear talks so vitally important to Washington.
Such a move would cause a new rupture in ties with Washington that France has spent much of the last decade trying to mend.
SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/politics/france-iran-nuclear-deal-hawks/index.html
So it has surprised some to see it emerge as the tough-talking bad cop in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
A decade ago, conservatives loved to mock France as a symbol of weakness, 'effete' liberal internationalism and what they regarded as "Old Europe" appeasement of hostile forces in the Middle East.
But French-U.S. relations have traveled a long way since the days when America's oldest ally was lambasted Simpsons-style as a home for "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and Capitol Hill menus listed "Freedom Fries."
Twelve years after that estrangement, sparked by Paris's opposition to the Iraq war, France has shifted from being to the dovish left of America on key foreign policy questions to its hawkish right.
This new trend is playing out in Switzerland, where France is adopting a firmer public line on the deadline-busting nuclear talks with Iran than the Obama administration -- which by comparison looks much more eager for a deal.
While Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met yet again Wednesday to thrash out an agreement long past its Tuesday midnight deadline, the top French negotiator left and spent most of the day in Paris.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, said on Wednesday that "things have progressed, but not enough" to produce an immediate deal.
"We want there to be an agreement, there's no doubt about that, (but) this agreement can only happen if it is robust and verifiable," he said, speaking in French. A French source said that late Wednesday Fabius headed back to Lausanne, where the talks are taking place.
Though what France has said behind closed doors at the negotiations remains unknown, Paris is now seen as more skeptical of the chances of a firmly binding Iran deal than the Obama administration, which has invested enormous political capital in the agreement and faces intense opposition from Republicans back in Washington.
In fact, the end-of-the-March milestone seems more rooted in President Barack Obama's need to show progress as skeptics in Congress fight to kill the deal than representing a true inflexion point in a negotiating process that has as its final deadline June 30.
There are signs that the French believe that Washington could in fact get a better political deal than the one that is currently on the table.
"The French understand the value of time, and essentially they know that the longer this goes on, within reason, the more reasons the Iranians have to give things up," said Atlantic Council senior fellow Nicholas Dungan.
"The French feel that we can ask for an agreement on specifics which the Iranians might be reluctant to give but which the French believe they probably will give in order to get the deal done."
And France isn't just playing the bad cop role for the sake of stiffening negotiations -- it has its own unique view of power politics in the Middle East.
For one thing, it has been burned by Iran before.
Paris has actually been engaging Tehran on its nuclear program for years longer than the U.S., and therefore has had more time to see its expectations dashed. It was part of negotiations with Iran along with Germany and Britain in 2004 and 2005. And it learned hard lessons when it was revealed in September 2009, during a visit to the United States by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, that Iran had built an underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow -- despite previous denials.
"The French do not necessarily trust the commitment that the Iranians might actually engage in," said Guillaume Xavier-Bender, a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
"They don't trust that every element will be respected because of their history of negotiation with the Iranians -- they have been deceived multiple times."
That French preoccupation was revealed in an earlier stage of the current round of nuclear talks with Iran that now also include the U.S., Russia and China.
Washington was angered at France's last-minute reluctance to sign on to an interim nuclear deal that was finally agreed to in late 2013.
Back then, Fabius insisted on the toughening of language on Iran's right to enrich uranium and on its plutonium reactor at Arak, changes to a draft deal that Washington later embraced.
There are also broader political and diplomatic forces at work between France and the United States behind the scenes, which, according to both sides, have brought relations to their strongest point in years, the differences over the Iran negotiations not withstanding.
France has emerged as Washington's most reliable European partner in power projection outside its backyard, better even than Washington's 'special relationship' ally Britain.
A fundamental shift in French foreign policy took place after the Iraq meltdown when Sarkozy took power.
"Some of it was down to diplomatic tactics and some of it was a genuine policy decision," said Dungan, author of a forthcoming book titled "Why France Matters."
"One of the reasons why the U.S. could be suspicious or dismissive of France was that it could say 'the French aren't going to fight,'" he said.
"Right away on taking office, Sarkozy took a much harder line."
So in 2011, it was the conservative Sarkozy who led the charge on Western intervention in Libya to avert what was seen as a possible massacre by Moamer Gadhaffi's forces in Benghazi and convinced Obama to join in.
The trend continued when the socialist Francois Hollande became president in 2012, only to be embarrassed when Obama climbed down from threats to punish Syria for chemical weapons violations while French pilots were strapped into their cockpits to begin bombing runs.
Nevertheless, France was the first European nation to send its planes into the skies over Iraq to bomb ISIS alongside American jets this fall.
Paris also has a narrow self-interest at play in Switzerland that also shapes its hawkish stance.
It's a longtime member of the nuclear club and any widening of the membership -- and a possible Middle Eastern arms race -- would tarnish its own relative prestige and power.
And there may also be some wounded feelings at play. Though they are under an international umbrella, the Iran nuclear talks have effectively boiled down to a bilateral negotiation between longtime enemies Washington and Tehran -- with Europe partially sidelined.
So France's pride dictates that it is unlikely to accept any outcome that appears imposed by the United States.
But that desire to preserve its own primacy in transatlantic affairs is also the reason, experts said, that France would never totally derail nuclear talks so vitally important to Washington.
Such a move would cause a new rupture in ties with Washington that France has spent much of the last decade trying to mend.
SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/politics/france-iran-nuclear-deal-hawks/index.html
US reportedly backed down on initial goals in Iran talks
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/03/multiple-us-concessions-drove-iran-nuclear-talks-to-framework-deal-report/
2 idiots just secured that US will be fighting a proxy war for years to come.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/03/multiple-us-concessions-drove-iran-nuclear-talks-to-framework-deal-report/
2 idiots just secured that US will be fighting a proxy war for years to come.
It is kind of sad that France has more balls then America. Iran chants "Death to America" and we sit down and talk with them. They tell everyone that Israel will be destroyed and we sit down and talk with them.
Any GOP Presidential hopeful should come out with saying 1st line of business is to strike down any deal with Iran that the muppets did.
Any GOP Presidential hopeful should come out with saying 1st line of business is to strike down any deal with Iran that the muppets did.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/world/iran-nuclear-talks/index.html
Iran: 'Significant progress' made in nuclear talks 01:53
Lausanne, Switzerland (CNN)Latest developments:
• The basis for an agreement for a peaceful Iranian nuclear program and a lifting of sanctions against that nation has been reached, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced Thursday in Switzerland. "We have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action," she said.
• Iran's enrichment capacity and stockpile will be limited, and Iran's sole enrichment facility will be at the Natanz nuclear facility, Mogherini said. Other nuclear facilities will be converted for other uses, she said.
• Under the agreement, the nuclear facility at Fordow will be converted to a nuclear physics and technology center and the facility at Arak will be redesigned as a heavy-water research reactor that will not produce weapons-grade plutonium.
• The European Union will terminate all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against Iran, and the United States will do the same once Iran's implementation of the agreement is confirmed, according to announcements of the deal.
[Previous story, published at 1:25 p.m. ET]
Iran, EU hint at breakthrough in nuclear talks
Significant agreements have been reached regarding Iran's nuclear program, according to tweets by officials ahead of a planned joint statement.
"Found solutions," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted. "Ready to start drafting immediately."
"Solutions on key parameters" reached, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, tweeted, "Good news," regarding the talks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent a tweet saying that "parameters to resolve major issues" have been reached.
The flurry of tweets basically amounted to a leak of the upcoming statement. The message: expect a breakthrough from the marathon talks in Lausanne.
Mogherini is expected to make a statement, which will also be read in Farsi by Zarif.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is also expected to make a statement.
The goal had been to agree on a framework for a future final nuclear agreement by Tuesday. The talks stretched well past the original deadline.
The statement will mark the end of a round of talks that started last week.
Earlier Thursday, as Zarif was walking back to the hotel where the negotiations were being held, he told reporters that a statement was in the works.
Issuing a statement sounds like something less significant than the framework of understanding that the parties were aiming for.
"What we expect today is a statement and the fact that we have all reached common understanding on how to resolve the issues," Zarif said. "But the agreement, a written agreement, is something that needs to be drafted by all participants and agreed upon in a multilateral process. And that would take, hopefully, three months, to finalize, and hopefully less."
Asked if an understanding has been reached on all issues, Zarif replied, "that's what we think we have, but nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."
World powers -- the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany -- were examining the results of the overnight talks without Iran present, he said.
The talks, aimed at reaching a preliminary political deal on Iran's nuclear program, blew past their initial, self-imposed deadline of late Tuesday as Iranian and U.S. negotiators struggled to find compromises on key issues.
But the negotiators have doggedly continued their work in Lausanne, trying to overcome decades of mistrust between Tehran and Washington.
The mutual mistrust has been a serious problem in the talks, Zarif said.
"I believe respect is something that needs to be exercised in practice and in deeds, and I hope that everyone is engaging in that in mutual respect," he said.
'A few meters from the finishing line'
"We are a few meters from the finishing line, but it's always the last meters that are the most difficult. We will try and cross them," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said as he returned to the talks late Wednesday. "We want a robust and verifiable agreement, and there are still points where there needs to be progress, especially on the Iranian side."
Iran wants swift relief from punishing sanctions that have throttled its economy. And Western countries want to make sure any deal holds Iran back from being able to rapidly develop a nuclear weapon.
It's unclear what kind of accord might emerge from this round of talks -- Iran appears to be resisting too many specifics, while the U.S. side wants to put hard numbers on key points.
Whatever it might turn out to be, the interim deal will need to be fleshed out into a full deal by June 30. Some of the thorniest issues could end up being left for that final phase.
But in the meantime, the Obama administration needs something solid enough it can sell to a skeptical Congress, which has threatened to impose new sanctions on Iran. The potential deal is also coming under sustained attack from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lausanne, Switzerland (CNN)Latest developments:
• The basis for an agreement for a peaceful Iranian nuclear program and a lifting of sanctions against that nation has been reached, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced Thursday in Switzerland. "We have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action," she said.
• Iran's enrichment capacity and stockpile will be limited, and Iran's sole enrichment facility will be at the Natanz nuclear facility, Mogherini said. Other nuclear facilities will be converted for other uses, she said.
• Under the agreement, the nuclear facility at Fordow will be converted to a nuclear physics and technology center and the facility at Arak will be redesigned as a heavy-water research reactor that will not produce weapons-grade plutonium.
• The European Union will terminate all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against Iran, and the United States will do the same once Iran's implementation of the agreement is confirmed, according to announcements of the deal.
[Previous story, published at 1:25 p.m. ET]
Iran, EU hint at breakthrough in nuclear talks
Significant agreements have been reached regarding Iran's nuclear program, according to tweets by officials ahead of a planned joint statement.
"Found solutions," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted. "Ready to start drafting immediately."
"Solutions on key parameters" reached, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, tweeted, "Good news," regarding the talks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent a tweet saying that "parameters to resolve major issues" have been reached.
The flurry of tweets basically amounted to a leak of the upcoming statement. The message: expect a breakthrough from the marathon talks in Lausanne.
Mogherini is expected to make a statement, which will also be read in Farsi by Zarif.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is also expected to make a statement.
The goal had been to agree on a framework for a future final nuclear agreement by Tuesday. The talks stretched well past the original deadline.
The statement will mark the end of a round of talks that started last week.
Earlier Thursday, as Zarif was walking back to the hotel where the negotiations were being held, he told reporters that a statement was in the works.
Issuing a statement sounds like something less significant than the framework of understanding that the parties were aiming for.
"What we expect today is a statement and the fact that we have all reached common understanding on how to resolve the issues," Zarif said. "But the agreement, a written agreement, is something that needs to be drafted by all participants and agreed upon in a multilateral process. And that would take, hopefully, three months, to finalize, and hopefully less."
Asked if an understanding has been reached on all issues, Zarif replied, "that's what we think we have, but nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."
World powers -- the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany -- were examining the results of the overnight talks without Iran present, he said.
The talks, aimed at reaching a preliminary political deal on Iran's nuclear program, blew past their initial, self-imposed deadline of late Tuesday as Iranian and U.S. negotiators struggled to find compromises on key issues.
But the negotiators have doggedly continued their work in Lausanne, trying to overcome decades of mistrust between Tehran and Washington.
The mutual mistrust has been a serious problem in the talks, Zarif said.
"I believe respect is something that needs to be exercised in practice and in deeds, and I hope that everyone is engaging in that in mutual respect," he said.
'A few meters from the finishing line'
"We are a few meters from the finishing line, but it's always the last meters that are the most difficult. We will try and cross them," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said as he returned to the talks late Wednesday. "We want a robust and verifiable agreement, and there are still points where there needs to be progress, especially on the Iranian side."
Iran wants swift relief from punishing sanctions that have throttled its economy. And Western countries want to make sure any deal holds Iran back from being able to rapidly develop a nuclear weapon.
It's unclear what kind of accord might emerge from this round of talks -- Iran appears to be resisting too many specifics, while the U.S. side wants to put hard numbers on key points.
Whatever it might turn out to be, the interim deal will need to be fleshed out into a full deal by June 30. Some of the thorniest issues could end up being left for that final phase.
But in the meantime, the Obama administration needs something solid enough it can sell to a skeptical Congress, which has threatened to impose new sanctions on Iran. The potential deal is also coming under sustained attack from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Maybe it's the old good cop/bad cop......do ya think?
Ahh, I feel so badly for you. France is tough than we are. Oh my, what on earth shall we do? They're more hawkish. Jeepers!
So Obama has reduced our foreign-policy image SO low, that even France is higher up the ladder than we are, in reference to how "hawkish" we're viewed?
Thank you Glorious Leader.
Thank you Glorious Leader.
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