John Vinocur : Putin’s Woman in Paris
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In The Wall Street Journal, John Vinocur argues that Russia couldn’t ask for a better ally in Paris than Marine Le Pan. Source: WSJ
John Vinocur: France, Iran and the ’Front of Mistrust’ - WSJ.com
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France, Iran and the ’Front of Mistrust’
Tehran makes a sly offer on nuclear talks; Paris leads the opposition.
By JOHN VINOCUR
Jan. 6, 2014 3:09 p.m. ET
Paris
In the midst of the West’s Christmas to New Year’s snooze, Iran’s ayatollahs demonstrated their share of big-time cunning. The result: remarks that look like an offer to the U.S. of one-on-one talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, which would maximize its chances of getting a concession-laden deal from the Obama administration.
The offer (even though that’s not how Iran described it) was made in a statement Dec. 27 by Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister who is often referred to as the closest adviser on external affairs to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader.
It appeals to the White House’s desire to resuscitate Barack Obama’s presidency with a slam-bam peace-in-my-time accord; may satisfy many previously resistant Congressmen with the sense they will have a greater hand in the final negotiations; and block an increasingly assertive naysayer’s role for France among the U.N. Security Council’s Iran negotiators.
All this, while the ayatollahs generously save face for the other five countries (Britain, China, Russia, France, and Germany) by offering them separate one-on-one talk-tracks (and, presumably, tailor-made trade opportunities). Artful, no?
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Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, left, with French President François Hollande after a meeting in Riyadh on Dec. 29. Associated Press
According to an Associated Press dispatch headlined, “Iranian official calls for direct talks with Washington,” Mr. Velayati said of the current Iran-Security Council discussions, “We aren’t on the right path if we don’t have one-on-one talks with the six countries. We have to have talks with the countries separately.”
The exceptionally clever aspect of the maneuver is that it can gain a degree of theoretical traction in Washington, and something very close to support in capitals like London and Berlin, where the dominant idea is “get the Iran thing done.” Which means Barack Obama, having already given ground on Iranian uranium enrichment, and remaining inexplicit about more concessions, would be effectively left with the West’s share of decisions about the young century’s most important international-security problem.
Camille Grand, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, gave Iranian cleverness its due over the weekend, saying, “The fact is, three-quarters of the world would applaud” America’s taking over the show.
In this case, the Obama administration just might think that France, with its irritating vision of itself as the world’s guardian of nuclear non-proliferation, could be dismissed as a strategic nag, increasingly alone, and no longer Washington’s co-equal in dealing with Tehran.
Indeed over the past few months, a number of former French diplomats, backed by commercial interests, have been arguing to this effect: “The Americans will eventually go to one-on-one talks, and we’ll be isolated because Obama wants a deal and the Iranians are smart enough to give him one.”
Now, with French forces struggling to halt a jihadist takeover of the broken and lawless Central African Republic, more Paris voices are saying it’s no time to be butting heads with the Americans on Iran when more U.S. military support is needed to keep France’s African mission from becoming a shambles.