Neither condemnation nor explicit support. On the fourth day of the conflict between Israel and Iran, Emmanuel Macron tries to adopt a equilibrium position to avoid the hugs of the entire Middle East.
The two countries have continued their strike trade since Friday night, launched by an Israeli mass attack against Iranian military and nuclear sites.
“We do not share the approach,” chosen by Tel Aviv, or “the need for a military operation,” said the head of state at a press conference at Elysée a few hours after the start of hostilities.
“Forced to take our distance”
But there is no doubt about distanceing too much. Israeli attacks “have allowed reducing the enrichment capacities” of Teheranus Uranium and “therefore, have effects that go in the requested direction,” said the president.
As for the Israelis, it is explained that these attacks aim to dismantle the Iranian program to enrich Uranium for medical and scientific purposes, but also military. According to the estimate of the experts, Iran would have approximately 5 tons of uranium enriched by more than 20%, including a few hundred kilos at 60% for use that would create a nuclear weapon.
But for the use of this type that, therefore, would allow Israel to point, it would be necessary to reach 90%. If the United States began a new cycle of negotiations with Iran on June 15 in this archive, the Israeli strikes have changed the situation, pushing Emmanuel Macron to try to get angry or Benyamin Netanyahu.
“Israel is embarking on a preventive war. But it does so without respect for international law. Therefore, we are obliged to distance our distance,” decipher a deputy from the common base, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee with BFMTV.
Threat to Europe
If the Israeli government itself evokes “preventive strikes” judging the imminent Iranian nuclear threat, international law prohibits any preventive war.
“At the same time, if Iran is going to the end, Israel can be clearly scratched from the map. And that is inconceivable. Therefore, France must also be next to this stitch.”
This “march towards nuclear weapons by Iran threatens the region, Europe and stability in general in general,” summarized Emmanuel Macron in front of journalists this Friday. “The Iranian threat to Israel is immediate and vital,” said François Bayrou on Monday.
“Voluntarily in ambiguity”
Until now, neither France nor the European Union were really the advances in negotiations with Iran. For months, the United States has been negotiating with the Mullah regime. But the context pushes Emmanuel Macron to try to recover control, as he has already tried to do in the Ukrainian archive, without a great change in the field at the moment.
To avoid climbing between the two countries, the president demands “resumption of dialogue” and “negotiation” to solve “the Iranian nuclear issue”.
“We have a president who voluntarily remains in ambiguity, without really clarifying his intentions about Israel or Iran,” says Ayda Hadizadeh, a socialist deputy director and president of the Friendship Group France will go to the National Assembly.
Fear of oil
Difficult to show that it is wrong. If Emmanuel Macron refuses to attack Iran in mind, it is particularly because of his strategic geographical position, on the edge of the Ormuz Strait. This passage only concentrates almost a third of world oil transported by sea. On Saturday, Esmail Kowsari, a great commander of the guards of the Revolution, warned that Iran was planning to close it if the attacks continued, pushing the barrel lessons to fly to the wake.
In a context of a global economy weakened by the increase in customs tasks, time is rather for caution for this reason. Therefore, the Head of State preferred to explain to be ready to participate “in the protection and defense” of Israel in case of “reprisals”, if France was “in a situation of doing so”, without specifying the contours.
The European Union in La Sourdine
Does this mean that Paris would be ready to send troops to the ground? If so, what mandate and what does it mean? Are the French forces quite numerous if they had to deploy in Ukraine in the “reinsurance force” in case of agreement between Moscow and kyiv after more than 4 years of conflict?
The announcement of the Elysée Palace is even more surprising since Emmanuel Macron has had frozen relationships with Benjamin Netanyahu for months. France calls to recognize the state of Palestine and has repeatedly denounced the catastrophic humanitarian situation in progress in the Gaza Strip, relentlessly withdrew from the attacks of October 7, 2023.
“The president probably seeks to take the European Union by his side” to allow the pressure between Israel and Iran to be designed, analyzes Jean-Marie Collin, consulting on international security issues.
“But for the moment, Brussels diplomacy has never had enough weight to make it possible to trigger real political decisions of its leaders,” laments the director of Ican, the campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.
Part of the left requests the organization of a debate in the Assembly on the Iranian nuclear archive in the hope of pressing Emmanuel Macron to clarify their intentions.
Source: BFM TV
