What a difference an election makes!
France took the first steps Monday to set up a European sanctions regime against the Islamic government in Tehran, after warning that Iran's failure to renounce nuclear weapons could lead to war.Good to have our allies working with us for a change.
The tough talk from Paris came as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany prepared to discuss new UN sanctions on Iran, which has failed to respond to demands to stop enriching uranium.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen in Paris and said European countries should prepare their own sanctions programmes outside the orbit of the UN.
"These would be European sanctions that each country, individually, must put in place with its own banking, commercial and industrial system. The English and the Germans are interested in talking about this. We will try to find a common European position," Kouchner said.
Verhagen said the "first effort should be to convince the Security Council to apply more sanctions. But when the Security Council doesn't agree, I am prepared, I am willing, to apply European Union sanctions in common with the United States sanctions."
