Sarkozy tells Iran it faces attack over atomic program

[Tiberius]

Source: International Herald Tribune

PARIS - In his first major foreign policy speech since taking office, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Iran could be attacked militarily if it did not live up to its international obligations to curb its nuclear program.

Addressing the French ambassadorial corps, Sarkozy stressed that such an outcome would be a disaster. He did not say that France would ever participate in military action against Iran or even tacitly support such an approach.

But the mere fact that he raised the specter of the use of force is quite likely to be perceived by Iran as a warning of the consequences of its actions.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/27/europe/france.php

[Bitwit1234]

1. Oh my goodness is France going to attack Iran!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Laughing Mirror]

2. I wonder how Sarko would feel if France were threatened with bombs

Because of its nuclear program.

[David__77]

3. Good point. The "nuclear club" is nauseating.

The NPT is just a weapon used to beat up on the developing countries that do not have the self-defense capacity to deter threats against it.

[Laughing Mirror]

7. While dear old Libya is soon to join nuclear club with backing of Sarkozy

Recall Sarko recently traded Libya the nurse hostages for hundred of millions of euros worth of weapons and will be providing Libya nuclear technology to get its program going.

Does anybody outside of France take this showbiz clown seriously?

[David__77]

8. Libya doesn't want nuclear weapons.

I think this was in regards to nuclear power. The interesting thing about Qaddhafi these days is how he is now in such good graces with Western leaders. Apparently, it's been decided that he's a secular force they want to maintain.

[Laughing Mirror]

15. Iran doesn't want nuclear weapons either, they say officially

But if I were them I'd want them too, for protection.

[SpikeTss]

17. They'll find a way to make it a weapon

Just like they found a way to press half a billion dollars from the West
by kidnapping nurses and doctors.
And like they found a way to blow up airliners and discotheques without
facing real consequences for it.
I'm pretty sure that the radioactive substances they'll use will find their
way into dirty bombs or even nuclear bombs directed against the US or any
other nation the Libyans will terrorize next.

[David__77]

19. Reagan's terror bombings of Libya were a "consequence."

Did not Libyan blood get shed by US bombs under the Reagan presidency. I'm sure there's more than one Libyan who's owed a certain debt from those criminal and immoral bombings.

[Amonester]

4. There is no "untapped" oil to steal by the neocons' cronies in France

:sarcasm:

[Megahurtz]

16. LOL Perfect. n/t

[bamacrat]

5. I understand that we do not need more nuclear countries in the world but..

It seems like it would mean more coming from say Switzerland or Venezuela, you know someone that doesn't have nukes. A nuclear country threaten military action only sounds hypocritical and like a threat to use nukes, which would scare a non-nuclear country into trying to get them to protect themselves. Just a thought.

[Kagemusha]

6. Did anyone actually read anything but the headline?

Anyone?

"Addressing the French ambassadorial corps, Sarkozy stressed that such an outcome would be a disaster. He did not say that France would ever participate in military action against Iran or even tacitly support such an approach."

[Amonester]

9. I didn't have to read more than the headline. The entire world

knows what the sick dic-k and his "followers" R up to... and scared (because of what these mofos did to both Iraq and the U.S.), so Sarko saying the sickos plan to attack and murder thousands of innocents because they can is not LBN to anyone in the rest of the world. That said, a big majority of that rest of the world still oppose such another crime against humanity in the making. But the "who cares what they think" war criminal is not rotting in jail yet.

[Kagemusha]

12. I'm referring to the people who think France will join the US in bombs away.

But hey. Whatever.

[Amonester]

13. I think they 'forgot' to add the :sarcasm: tag.

Sarko may be 'leaning' right-wing, but he ain't no Mussolini...

France is still #1 on the list of 'single-payer public-health care' countries.

Not too many of his constituents would 'forgive' him if he'd make such a faux pas...

[mvd]

10. He has many of the same stances that Chirac had, but..

the message is different. He's willing to be an apologist and make friends with those countries (like the USA) that have abused their power in the world.

[Deep13]

11. Let France take care of this one.

We've destroyed any international goodwill we had.

[BridgeTheGap]

14. Yes, it would be a disaster

the nuclear fallout resulting from such an attack could not only devastate huge portions of Iran but could effect numerous countries downwind.

[coalition_unwilling]

18. Iran tells France it faces attack over its atomic program -n/t

[daleo]

20. France may not help out in an attack on Iran

But matter of fact talk like this tends to legitimize such endeavors by aggressors. Imagine if the president of France had been warning Poland to watch out for itself in 1939, instead of telling Hitler to back off.

[Javaman]

21. Somehow all this seems so bizarre. Like france threatening Iran

with war...oh wait.

[ohio2007]

22. Sarkozy also took a shot at China

...He criticized Beijing's management of its currency, which he says is too low and gives it an unfair advantage on export markets. He said China and other developing powers Mexico, South Africa, Brazil and India should eventually join the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations to become the G13.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3442638,00.html

[CTLawGuy]

23. does this mean the cons have to stop hating france?

NT

[LeftishBrit]

24. Sarkozy doesn't support attacking Iran...

he mentioned it as a (disastrous) possibility.

If he tried to drag the French into an unnecessary war, they'd probably revive the guillotine just for him, and he knows it. Iran could be attacked, but not by France.

[Purveyor]

25. French President Cautions Against Attacking Iran In Standoff Over Tehran's Nuclear Program

Source: Associated Press

PARIS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Monday that it would be “catastrophic” to resort to military force in confronting Iran over its suspect nuclear program.

“For me, Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable,” Sarkozy said in his first major address on foreign policy, but he stressed that he opposed an attack on the Islamic regime and urged that the West rely on diplomacy.

He said Iran can choose between dialogue with the international community or more U.N. sanctions. “This tactic is the only one that allows us to escape from a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb, or the bombing of Iran,” he said.

Sarkozy also said Iran is entitled to use nuclear power for civilian needs, such as generating electricity. If countries like Iran run out of fossil fuels, and “if they don't have the right to the energy of the future, then we will create conditions of misery and underdevelopment, and therefore an explosion of terrorism,” Sarkozy said.



Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070827-1218-france-sarkozy.html

[muntrv]

26. Remember first Iran, then France.

:sarcasm:

[EVDebs]

27. The DoD has wargamed this and it was a failure

and in Atlantic Monthly, James Fallows article shows an impromptu wargaming came to the same conclusion,

"About America's military options there is almost as clear a view. In circumstances of all-out war the United States could mount an invasion of Iran if it had to. If sufficiently provoked—by evidence that Iran was involved in a terrorist incident, for example, or that it was fomenting violence in Iraq—the United States could probably be effective with a punitive bomb-and-missile attack on Revolutionary Guard units.

But for the purposes most likely to interest the next American President—that is, as a tool to slow or stop Iran's progress toward nuclear weaponry—the available military options are likely to fail in the long term."

Will Iran Be Next ?
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200412/fallows

And counter-measures by Iran,

Iran Announces 2.000 Pound 'Smart' Bomb
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-08-23-iran-bomb_N.htm

[defendandprotect]

28. What's he hearing . . .. ????? !!! ???? -----------------?????

[Bitwit1234]

29. Scarbough today said the country would go along with bush

He and Nutso Buchanan said that the country would appreciate the fact that bush invades Iran. And that the democrats in this country would jump on the bandwagon and support the strikes also.

[Danger Mouse]

30. The Democrats would jump on the bandwagon for lack of a spine...

and lack of a willingness to stand up to Bush. The public will be outraged and disgusted. The media will cheerlead for the president, of course.
:puke:

[provis99]

31. Oh. so France can have the Bomb, but Iran can't

International politics is so hypocritical, it just literally makes me physically sick. Why does the US say Iran can't have the Bomb? Because they might use it, like we do.

[rodeodance]

32. I, for one, am glad to hear him say this.

[LeftishBrit]

33. Good for him!

[Beerboy]

34. In every eventuality,

it's unacceptable to attack Iran.
I thought Sarkozy was a right-wing nut job at first, the way American conservative pundits celebrated his election, but Sarkozy is at least sane. Any attack on Iran is unacceptable.
Iran is a sovereign nation just like France, Germany, or the United States. Why does Iran have to clear their strategic defense capabilities with the United States?

[Orsino]

35. * has a new poodle. n/t