France Insists?

Let me get this straight. France first brokers a peace deal between the Israelis and Hezbollah and then backs out of actually sending peacekeeping troops because they couldn’t receive a guarantee that their forces would be “safe.” Now we read that France is insisting that Iran stop all Uranium production before they will allow talks to take place:

France give Iran condition for talks
France insisted Wednesday that Iran must suspend uranium enrichment if it wants talks over its nuclear program. Tehran's apparent refusal to suspend enrichment sets the stage for a showdown at the U.N. Security Council later this month — with no certainty the United States will win tough sanctions against Tehran.

Diplomats from Europe, the U.S., Russia and China were poring over details of Iran's counterproposal to a Western nuclear incentives package Wednesday a day after Tehran presented it. Initial comments from Russia and China made clear the United States is likely to face difficulty getting at least those nations to agree to any tough sanctions against Iran.

In Paris, however, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear that his government was sticking by the U.N. demand for Iran to halt enrichment by the end of this month as a precondition to further talks.

"I want to point out again that France is available to negotiate, and to recall that, as we have always said ... a return to the negotiating table is linked to the suspension of uranium enrichment," Douste-Blazy said.

While I am glad that the European nations are finally seeing the light I have to question how voracious the French will really be in enforcing this condition. Their track record of saying one thing only to do the other is long and extensive. Even more troubling is their historical attempts to subvert talks by asserting that certain conditions be met by the parties involved, knowing full well that one or both of the parties involved will never accept the terms, or of actually helping the belligerent party in obtaining military weapons while stalling for more dialogue.

Hopefully this isn’t the case this time, but one bitten twice shy I always say.