Of Course: Obama Now Turning on P5+1 Allies on Iran, Bullying Them Into Supporting a Bad Deal
The View From the French Security Establishment: Obama Is "Politically Naive," Thinks Iran Will Save Him In Syria and Iraq

You know it's a bad deal when even the French are calling it too French.

By the way, kudos to the Free Beacon and Adam Kredo for what seems to be scoop.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland--Efforts by the Obama administration to stem criticism of its diplomacy with Iran have included threats to nations involved in the talks, including U.S. allies, according to Western sources familiar with White House efforts to quell fears it will permit Iran to retain aspects of its nuclear weapons program.

A series of conversations between top American and French officials, including between President Obama and French President Francois Hollande, have seen Americans engage in behavior described as bullying by sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

The disagreement over France’s cautious position in regard to Iran threatens to erode U.S. relations with Paris, sources said.

Tension between Washington and Paris comes amid frustration by other U.S. allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel. The White House responded to this criticism by engaging in public campaigns analysts worry will endanger American interests.

Benjamin Haddad, previously advisor to the French in negotiations and now a researcher at the Hudson Institute, said:

"The French want a deal, but they see no rush and repeat that Iranians need a deal more than we do, and that we shouldn't fix artificial deadlines that put more pressure on us than Iran."

But this "deal" is more about restraining Iran's enemies than Iran.

...

One source in Europe close to the ongoing diplomacy said the United States has begun to adopt a "harsh" stance toward its allies in Paris.

"There have been very harsh expressions of displeasure by the Americans toward French officials for raising substantive concerns about key elements of what the White House and State Department negotiators are willing to concede to Iran," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "That is because the clarifications expose just how weak the Americans' deal is shaping up to be."

Thanks to @redsteeze.

The French View: Here's a report on this from two days ago (March 25), in Le Fig.

Tensions Between France and the United States on Iran's Nukes

The negotiations between the great powers and Iran restart Thursday at Lausanne, while the deadline of March 31 approaches.

...

The French ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, stated again to the Security Council: Iran's progress was "insufficient" for guaranteeing the longterm peaceful character of its nuclear program. We must have an agreement "robust" repeated Laurent Fabius [the Foreign Minister]. The tensions between the French and Americans concern many points of the deal, of which the technical details should be finalized June 30. Paris wants more [!!!!] restrictions on the program of Research and Development, in order to stop the Iranians from constructing even better centrifuges. France also wants the period of restriction to be 15 years rather than 10 [sought by Obama]. France is further skeptical of the idea of quickly suspending some UN sanctions. Barack Obama, say the French diplomats, seems to be ready to make concessions which are far removed from the objectives initially agreed to by the six great powers.

I should point out that France still thinks it's a great power, which is cute.

Then again, I guess we think that too.

"The differences are not made-up. At the core, it's about a strategic problem," comments Bruno Tertrais, director of research at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS). The White House wants to invest in the relationship with Iran for fixing the conflicts in the Middle East and especially in Syria and Iraq, where Teheran more and more openly pulls the strings. "It's political naivite. The White House has given in to illusions about the type of relationship that it thinks is possible to cultivate with Iran and of the possible positive consequences of an agreement on nukes on the [whole of the] Middle East," Tertrais further said.

Indeed, for long months, the French and Americans have no longer had the same definition of what would be a "bad deal."

So: Obama doesn't want to lead or even act in Syria and Iraq, and doesn't know what to do there.

So he's counting on Iran to fix these problems for him, and Iran is telling him the price of that is giving them their nukes.

And Obama, who never met a cop-out or "Present" vote he didn't like, is gung-ho to take that deal.

He will take any deal that gets him out to the golf-courses again.

BTW: This expert said this about Syria and Iraq two days ago -- but a White House source confirmed this was Obama's deluded thinking last night.

posted by Ace at 01:48 PM

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