- Iran: Eight Prisoners Hanged on Drug Charges
- Daughter of late Iranian president jailed for ‘spreading lies’ - IRAN: Annual report on the death penalty 2016 - Taheri Facing the Death Penalty Again - Dedicated team seeking return of missing agent in Iran - Iran Arrests 2, Seizes Bibles During Catholic Crackdown
- Trump to welcome Netanyahu as Palestinians fear U.S. shift
- Details of Iran nuclear deal still secret as US-Tehran relations unravel - Will Trump's Next Iran Sanctions Target China's Banks? - Don’t ‘tear up’ the Iran deal. Let it fail on its own. - Iran Has Changed, But For The Worse - Iran nuclear deal ‘on life support,’ Priebus says
- Female Activist Criticizes Rouhani’s Failure to Protect Citizens
- Iran’s 1st female bodybuilder tells her story - Iranian lady becomes a Dollar Millionaire on Valentine’s Day - Two women arrested after being filmed riding motorbike in Iran - 43,000 Cases of Child Marriage in Iran - Woman Investigating Clinton Foundation Child Trafficking KILLED!
- Senior Senators, ex-US officials urge firm policy on Iran
- In backing Syria's Assad, Russia looks to outdo Iran - Six out of 10 People in France ‘Don’t Feel Safe Anywhere’ - The liberal narrative is in denial about Iran - Netanyahu urges Putin to block Iranian power corridor - Iran Poses ‘Greatest Long Term Threat’ To Mid-East Security |
Monday 11 November 2013'Vive la France!' say US opponents of Iran nuclear deal
"Vive la France!" tweeted Senator John McCain, an outspoken voice on national security issues. "France had the courage to prevent a bad nuclear agreement with Iran," he said, after the weekend announcement that no agreement had been reached between the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1. During three days of intense negotiations in Geneva, France repeatedly voiced concerns over various points in a possible deal and its lack of guarantees, a position that had Iran calling it a negotiations spoiled sport. "Thank God for France and thank God for push back," said hawkish Senator Lindsey Graham on CNN's "State of the Union" show. "The French are becoming very good leaders in the Mideast," Graham said, also suggesting he would be in favor of more sanctions against Iran. "My fear is that we're going to wind up creating a North Korea-type situation in the Mideast, where we negotiate with Iran and one day you wake up... and you're going to have a nuclear Iran," he said. According to Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, France "has become the most hawkish Western nation on matters involving the Middle East and neighboring areas." "France pushed the Libyan intervention, invaded and rescued Mali" and "was most enthusiastic about strikes against Syrian chemical weapons targets," he said. This August, France made clear its wish to take military action alongside the US against the Syrian regime, making Paris Washington's main ally in the crisis after Britain backed out of any strikes. It was a stark turnabout from just a decade ago when then French president Jacques Chirac's opposition to the Anglo-US offensive against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq soured Franco-US ties. So deep was the animosity -- led by conservatives for the most part -- that French fries were renamed "freedom fries" in some American restaurants, as well as in cafeterias of the US House of Representatives. At the time, anti-French hate messages also were brandished in public, including on T-shirts and billboards. Despite the blockage being music to some Republicans' ears, the motivations of France, a historical US ally for more than 200 years, were likely self-serving, according to some analysts. "It is striking a lot of people as being surprising and the question is what is motivating France to take this position at this point?" said Alireza Nader, senior international policy analyst with the RAND Corporation. "Even countries like France are very much aware of the balance of power in the Middle East and they want to protect their interests." |