LAUSANNE, Switzerland—France is again adopting the toughest line against Iran in negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, potentially placing Paris at odds with the Obama administration as a diplomatic deadline to forge an agreement approaches at month-end.
President Barack Obama called French President François Hollande on Friday to discuss the Iran diplomacy and try to unify their positions. The presidents “reaffirmed their commitment” to a deal “while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues,” the White House said.
French diplomats have been publicly pressing the U.S. and other world powers not to give ground on key elements—particularly the speed of lifting U.N. sanctions and the pledge to constrain Iran’s nuclear research work—ahead of the March 31 target.
Paris also appears to be operating on a different diplomatic clock than Washington, arguing that the date is an “artificial” deadline and that global powers should be willing to wait Tehran out for a better deal if necessary.
Obama administration officials have said that expected moves by the U.S. Congress to put new sanctions on Iran as soon as April limit their ability to extend the diplomacy.
But French officials took exception.
“Making the end of March an absolute deadline is counterproductive and dangerous,” France’s ambassador to the U.S., Gérard Araud, said via Twitter after the latest round of negotiations in Switzerland concluded Friday.
“No agreement without concrete decisions on issues beyond the enrichment capability question,” he said a day earlier, specifically mentioning the need for extensive monitoring and clarity on Iran’s past research work. […]
In a sign of France’s determination, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called his negotiating team in Lausanne on Thursday to insist no deal could be forged that allowed for the rapid easing of U.N. Security Council measures, according to European officials.
Let’s recap:
It was just some random folks in a deli, France — get over it. Jew hate is the new black.
And by black, I mean the Democrat Party’s inclination, ’cause see, the Jews have gone all Republican, even though they run their country through social-welfare politics and economic controls. So, fundamental transformation is still the order of the day. For reference, one only has to look to the immediate recognition in the American media.
Oh sorry, I meant the American media.
Surely there is nothing hostile about calling an intentional misinterpretation a simple and commonplace understanding, with the implication that the “understander” has the final say in what is being communicated, right?
after Obama sets Iran up with a nuclear bomb these meddlesome French people will pay for their impertinence
How d’ya think them Frenchies will pay hf? Maybe by fulfilling the French Def. Minister’s dictum, that by losing its Jews France — the first European emancipator of the Jews — nominal France will no longer be France? That’d teach ’em.
i dunno but most of the islams in france are sunni ones
our new persian friends like looking at things through that lens it seems
the Aryans don’t mind the Sunni killing Jews, just so long as the Aryans are calling the shots — see Hamas.
Glenn Beck has been following a slightly different angle, though it doesn’t cancel out what Prager says here. (BTW, Prager was on Glenn’s show last week and they fell over each other trying to “agree more.”)
Clement V moved the capital of the church in 1309 to Avignon from Rome He also undertook a Crusade to the Levant in 1313 (not the first Crusade in that region, but whatevs).
The ISIS/Twelver narrative says that Islam will triumph over all the armies of Rome, which doesn’t mean Italy so much as “Christianity,” and given that “Rome” was in France during a 14th-century crusade to the Levant, it’s open season on France/Paris.
Where, incidentally, the largest Muslim immigrant population in Europe lives.
ISIS has stated that Paris is a target. Glenn worries that the cathedral of Notre Dame may not be long for this world, given that ISIS would rather destroy its enemies’ religious icons than, say, the Eiffel tower.
Me, I reckon none of the European cathedrals are safe from targeted bombing. The museums with their naked people and other haraam representations are next.
WWIII has already started, me hearties. Ain’t we lucky to be seein’ it in person.
Also, Glenn Beck rips Rove a new one, and throws down the gauntlet…
baracky be serious
Ann Coulter told FOX and Friends Saturday: “Obama is treating Netanyahu like he’s a Republican.”
I’d say WWIV – The Third World War was the Cold War. This one started in earnest on November 4, 1979.
eC is correct — this is indeed WW4.
French are a lot of things but, stupid is not one of them.
*** Police said “remarks made by one of the group” led them to flag the incident up as potentially anti-Semitic, but stressed that there was nothing to suggest it was a planned or targeted attack. ***
So “nothing” to suggest, according to the police. Who are blind and deaf, if not entirely dumb. Shoot, if that’s not a marching order, what the hell would a marching order look like? “Hey, hooligan Jew Haters! It’s open season on Jew hunting! Get ’em while the gettin’s good!”
The Guardian: France Balks at US plan for Phased Lifting of Iran Sanctions
*** Tehran is reluctant to accept sanctions relief based on milestones, but diplomats say the French position would be a complete deal-breaker. They say the Iranians would be very unlikely to admit past weapons work, which if revealed would demonstrate that the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had misled the world. Better, US diplomats argue, to focus on limiting the current Iranian programme and worry about allegations about the past a few years down the road.
US and French officials have also clashed in Lausanne over contrasting briefings their delegations have provided to the press. ***
Or, as Tony Badran puts it in a tweet: “The Obama Administration as Khameinei’s lawyer”