Israel Matzav

Sarcozy: Nuclear armed Iran 'unacceptable'

French President Nicolas Sarcozy gave a speech last night in which he outlined four challenges facing France in the 21st century. For those of you who speak French (I don't), you can find the full speech in the original here. Pajamas Media's Fausta Wertz has translated parts of the speech into English. Here are the key sections:

The first challenge: “Preventing a confrontation between Islam and the Occident, which extremists groups such as Al Qaeda dream to create from Indonesia to Nigeria, a caliphate that rejects any opening, any modernity, any idea even of diversity. Were they to attain this disastrous objective, this century would undoubtedly be worse still than the prior, however marked by a confrontation without mercy between ideologies.

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In addition to these three challenges, President Sarkozy identified Iran as a fourth crisis: “An Iran armed with nuclear weapons is unacceptable.” France is prepared to increase sanctions is also open to dialogue if Iran chooses to meet its obligations. “This step is the only one which would avoid a catastrophic alternative : the Iranian bomb or the bombardment of Iran. This fourth crisis is undoubtedly most serious which weighs today on the international order,” and France will strive to convince Iran that it has much to gain by engaging in serious negotiations with the Europeans, the USA, China and Russia.

But is Sarcozy willing and able to force French companies to stop assisting in Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:38 PM