FRANCE/FILE: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says his country must be ready for war with Iran over nuclear faceoff

Record ID: 575084

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says his country must be ready for war with Iran over nuclear faceoff
  • Date: 17th September 2007
  • Summary: (W4) ISFAHAN, IRAN (FILE) (REUTERS) INTERIORS OF NUCLEAR PLANT (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 2nd October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA5CIHCX5LED21ENETLK2QLNV9I
  • Story Text: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday (September 16) his country must prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over its nuclear programme, but he did not believe any such action was imminent.
    Seeking to ratchet up the pressure on Iran, Kouchner also told RTL radio and LCI television that the world's major powers should use further sanctions to show they were serious about stopping Tehran getting atom bombs.
    He also said France had asked French firms not to bid for tenders in the Islamic Republic.
    "We must prepare for the worst," Kouchner said in an interview, adding: "The worst, sir, is war."
    Tehran insists it only wants to master nuclear technology to produce electricity, but it has yet to comply with repeated U.N. demands that it suspend uranium enrichment and other sensitive work that could potentially be used in producing weapons.
    Kouchner's comments follow a similarly hawkish statement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said last month in his first major foreign policy speech since taking office that a diplomatic push by the world's powers was the only alternative to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".
    France has said repeatedly it wants the U.N. Security Council to pass tougher sanctions against Iran over its failure to dispel fears that it is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons.
    "We are preparing ourselves by trying to put together plans that are the chiefs of staff's prerogative (but) that is not about to happen tomorrow. We prepare ourselves by saying we won't accept that this bomb is built understanding thir use of nuclear enrichment. Nothing has been done. No resolutions have been taken. But we propose that some more efficient sanctions are put in place. Nothing has been done yet," Kouchner said.
    He also said that France had asked its biggest companies, including oil giant Total <TOTF.PA> and gas firm Gaz de France <GAZ.PA>, not to bid for projects in Iran.
    The United States, Germany, France and Britain have led a diplomatic drive to punish Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment programme.
    They succeeded in persuading reluctant Russia and China to back two U.N.
    sanctions resolutions.
    "We have already asked a certain number of our large companies to not respond to tenders, and it is a way of signalling that we are serious," Kouchner said.
    In addition, Paris and Berlin were preparing possible European Union economic sanctions against Tehran, Kouchner said.
    "We have decided to ... prepare ourselves for possible sanctions outside the U.N. sanctions and which would be European sanctions. Our German friends proposed it. We discussed it a few days ago," Kouchner said.
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