No oui!
Even the French, often seen as cheese-eating surrender monkeys in the face of foreign aggression, think President Obama has gone too soft on Iran.
They’ve effectively scuttled a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program on the brink of its approval.
The setback came on the third day of talks in Geneva among high-level ministers from Iran, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China, the European Union and the United States, which had sent Secretary of State John Kerry.
France was concerned the proposal as agreed upon by the other negotiators — in which first steps would be taken toward ensuring Tehran’s nuclear efforts remain peaceful — went too easy on Iran, a Western diplomat told The Associated Press.
Among the sticking points alluded to by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in a French radio interview Saturday was whether Iran’s unfinished Arak reactor would remain offline as negotiations for a final agreement continued into next year.
The reactor could produce enough plutonium for several nuclear weapons a year.
Fabius also hinted there was disagreement over what level of nuclear potency would be allowed in the plutonium and uranium Iran was enriching.
His nation does not want to be part of a “con game,” Fabius told France-Inter Radio.
France may now have an unusual bedfellow — Israel.
While his country has no seat at the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, kept abreast on the talks by Obama, said Saturday that he, too, saw the proposal as a “bad deal” that would lift sanctions in return for only cosmetic concessions from Tehran.
The impasse will likely result in the need for a new round of negotiations within a few weeks, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It’s no surprise the French may have blown the earliest, and perhaps best, chance at reining in Iran’s nuke ambitions, experts say.
“The French didn’t want to go there and just be a signatory,” said Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
“They wanted to take a stand. As a result of this, we might not get an agreement.”
“My concern is that momentum will be lost. There are hardliners in Iran who don’t want a deal. And we know Congress isn’t keen on making a deal,” she said.
“I’m not surprised by the French. Once in a while, they decide they want to go against the current.”
Hopes for an agreement surged Friday, when, after a second day of talks, Kerry and foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany flew to Geneva.
High-level talks stretched late into Saturday night.
Iran runs more than 10,000 centrifuges that have processed tons of plutonium and uranium, the vast majority of it fuel-grade.
But the country also has nearly 440 pounds of higher-enriched uranium, which can be more quickly enriched to weapons-grade level.
Experts say 550 pounds of 20 percent-enriched uranium is all that is needed to arm a warhead.