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Sarkozy: A Nuclear Iran Unacceptable
France's president takes hard line on Iran; reaches out and faces "racist" criticism on Africa
France's very active President Nicolas Sarkozy is marking the traditional rentée with a series of foreign policy initiatives.
First, the issue of a nuclear-armed Iran. France is one of the EU "Big Three" (also Britain, Germany) who have tried to negotiate Tehran off the nuclear weapons warpath. The EU3 made offers of civilian nuclear assistance and economic assistance in return from solid guarantees Iran would halt the dodgier aspects of its nuclear programme and open the rest to UN scrutiny. Many believe this approach failed: Indeed, Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, seemed to say at one stage that a nuclear Iran was inevitable, but that the Mullahs who run the country should be made aware that they would never be able to use their weapons without facing total destruction.
Sarkozy's line broke from Chirac's fatalism. Stressing that an Iran bomb was "unacceptable", he said that "without doubt" the Iranian crisis was "the most pressing for the world order," which could only have two "alternative catastrophes: An Iran bomb or the bombardment of Iran."
However, Sarkozy said Iran had "much to gain" by reopening negotiations with the EU, China, Russia and the US - a hint, perhaps, that EU promises of technical and economic aid would still be made good if Iran could be persuaded away from nuclear weapons.
The Iran warning was the most eye-catching element of Sarkozy's first "official" foreign policy speech to French ambassadors since becoming President in May. He also called for greater European cooperation on certain international issues: defence, immigration, the environment, and said that a strong, "major player" Europe would "rebuild a more efficient, fair and harmonious world order."
However, Sarkozy appeared to admit that nobody really knows what Europe is for. He said that he supported the idea of a council of ten "wise men" who should think about Europe's mission for future generations, and also set where its borders should be drawn. A report, produced two years from now, would give guidance for EU expansion and international policy (as any nations who didn't make the expansion edit would then fall into the international relations category).
Sarkozy restated his opposition to Turkey's membership of the EU, but said he would not block negotiations already underway with the EU.
The vision comes as an earlier speech, delivered to Cheick Anta Diop University in Senegal this July, was characterised as "racist" by African leaders, academics and anti-racism campaigners.
Here's an excerpt, courtesy of The Guardian:
"The tragedy of Africa is that the African has never really entered into history ... They have never really launched themselves into the future... The African peasant, who for thousands of years has lived according to the seasons, whose life ideal was to be in harmony with nature, only knew the eternal renewal of time ... In this imaginary world, where everything starts over and over again, there is room neither for human endeavour, nor for the idea of progress...
""The problem of Africa ... is to be found here. Africa's challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history ... It is to realise that the golden age that Africa is forever recalling will not return, because it has never existed."
Sarkozy added that France had "made mistakes" during its colonial rule of Africa, but "never exploited anyone."
His speech was condemned as "like something from a different era" by some African critics. However, the French President found support from an unlikely source, South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki wrote to thank Sarkozy for the speech, calling the French President "a citizen of Africa" who the continent was fortunate to have as a friend in the "struggle" for an African renaissance.
Mbeki's critics attacked him for failing to show "African unity" by condemning Sarkozy's vision. "I cannot imagine how Mbeki - a man who spent his entire life fighting apartheid and colonialism -- would endorse such a racist repudiation of African history and experience", wrote one Johannesburg critic.
Others claimed that Mbeki's letter, which was published in Le Monde, must have been "selectively leaked" by the Elysee.
French government officials have been at pains to stress that Sarkozy's speech also defended Africa against the excesses of laissez-faire economics and globalisation.
In his speech on Monday, Sarkozy also called for an expanded UN Security Council to include India, Germany, Japan and Brazil and "fair representation for Africa", as well as an expansion of the G8 to a "G13" by inviting China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa to join.
