What's France doing with new military threats against Iran?

By Alexander T. J. Lennon, Editor-in-Chief of The Washington Quarterly writes on What France Is Really Up To On Iran for the Center for Strategic and International Studies CSIS Commentary 09/20/07.

His reading of the new seemingly belligerent French position on Iran is based in part on his own discussions with French "government officials, journalists, and think-tank experts". He argues that what is really going on is that France is trying to build pressure on Russia and China to persuade them to go along with imposing United Nations sanctions on Iran, as distinct from US-European sanctions. He writes:

The new element is that France is willing to begin to consider going outside the UN to impose U.S.-EU sanctions, although Germany does not yet support such a step. On Monday, Kouchner publicly announced that Paris would work for European sanctions on Iran if the UN could not agree on tougher measures.

And he says that:

... even beginning to consider alternatives to the UN is desirable for three reasons.

First, raising the prospects of an alternate actor can move the UN talks faster. If Russia and China are threatened with losing their influence—their veto over UN Security Council actions—UN talks may be energized.

Second, if UN sanctions are passed, European sanctions can be simultaneously implemented with harsher penalties than what the UN might impose. That way, sanctions could have greater bite and Iran could not credibly blame the West for discriminating against it.

Finally, if UN sanctions continue to stall, European sanctions can provide an alternative forum to put pressure on Iran.

Tags: alexander t. j. lennon, iran, iran war