PARIS: French President Francois Hollande yesterday said that he wanted “concrete acts” from Iran to prove it was not pursuing a nuclear arms drive after his first face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At a press conference with Netanyahu, whose aim during a two-day visit to France is to seek more pressure on Iran, Hollande warned that Paris would back “other sanctions” if Tehran failed to convince on its contested nuclear programme. “This is a threat which cannot be accepted by France,” Hollande said.
“We have voted for many sanctions and are ready to vote others as long as necessary,” he said, demanding “proof that Iran has abandoned this drive”. Iran denies Israeli and Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is a cover for efforts to build the atomic bomb but has been hit by several rounds of UN and Western sanctions over its activities.
Netanyahu — whose country is the only if undeclared nuclear armed state in the Middle East — hailed the “extremely important position” taken by Hollande.
Netanyahu has warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state and has repeatedly refused to rule out military action, fuelling speculation that an attack was imminent.
But he then appeared to pull back, ostensibly to allow time for international sanctions to work. The Israeli leader said in an interview published yesterday that he believed the Arab world would be relieved if Israel struck at Iranian nuclear facilities.
He said in case of an attack, “five minutes later, contrary to what sceptics think, I believe there will be a great feeling of relief throughout the region.”
“Iran is not popular in the Arab world, far from it,” he said in comments to Paris-Match magazine. “And some neighbouring regimes and their citizens have well understood that a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger for them, not only for Israel,” he said, without mentioning specific nations. But Netanyahu later said: “What we want is a peaceful resolution.”
France, along with the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, is involved in negotiations with Iran but several rounds of talks have failed to to produce much progress on increasing the transparency of Tehran’s nuclear programme. Hollande also urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks without any conditions, while criticising continued Israeli occupation.
“Only negotiations can lead to a definitive solution,” he said. “France wants the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians without conditions and with the same goal—one we have been pursuing for years, even decades, two state, a state of Israel where security if guaranteed and a Palestinian state which must be allowed to live.”
Hollande said the two countries had “divergences on occupation, which we want to see halted.”
Direct peace talks have been on hold for more than two years, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas refusing to negotiate as long as Israel continues to build and approve new Jewish settlements on occupied land. Netanyahu’s talks with Hollande were held in a “very good atmosphere,” a top Israeli source said.
AFP
