Haaretz reprots:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel's government.
Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate's stance on Iran as "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content."
Obama visited Paris in July, and the Iranian issue was at the heart of his meeting with Sarkozy. At a joint press conference afterward, Obama urged Iran to accept the West's proposal on its nuclear program, saying that Iran was creating a serious situation that endangered both Israel and the West.
According to the reports reaching Israel, Sarkozy told Obama at that meeting that if the new American president elected in November changed his country's policy toward Iran, that would be "very problematic."
Until now, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have tried to maintain a united front on Iran. But according to the senior Israeli source, Sarkozy fears that Obama might "arrogantly" ignore the other members of this front and open a direct dialogue with Iran without preconditions.
Following their July meeting, Sarkozy repeatedly expressed disappointment with Obama's positions on Iran, concluding that they were "not crystallized, and therefore many issues remain open," the Israeli source said. Advisors to the French president who held separate meetings with Obama's advisors came away with similar impressions and expressed similar disappointment. [...]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel's government.
Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate's stance on Iran as "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content."
Obama visited Paris in July, and the Iranian issue was at the heart of his meeting with Sarkozy. At a joint press conference afterward, Obama urged Iran to accept the West's proposal on its nuclear program, saying that Iran was creating a serious situation that endangered both Israel and the West.
According to the reports reaching Israel, Sarkozy told Obama at that meeting that if the new American president elected in November changed his country's policy toward Iran, that would be "very problematic."
Until now, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have tried to maintain a united front on Iran. But according to the senior Israeli source, Sarkozy fears that Obama might "arrogantly" ignore the other members of this front and open a direct dialogue with Iran without preconditions.
Following their July meeting, Sarkozy repeatedly expressed disappointment with Obama's positions on Iran, concluding that they were "not crystallized, and therefore many issues remain open," the Israeli source said. Advisors to the French president who held separate meetings with Obama's advisors came away with similar impressions and expressed similar disappointment. [...]
The Washington Post reports it quite differently:
ReplyDelete"Sarkozy offered praise that stopped just short of an endorsement. He said he found "a tremendous convergence of views" with Obama on issues including Iran, Middle East peace and climate change"
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/25/at_appearance_with_sarkozy_oba.html
And so does this timely source:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/25/1223989.aspx
But he spoke glowingly of the senator and noted that many people in Europe came from different backgrounds, and so "Barack Obama's adventure is an adventure that rings true in the hearts and mind of the French and of Europeans."
and from Great Britain came this report immediately after the meeting:
"Obama? He's my pal," the French president told Le Figaro newspaper today. "Unlike my diplomatic advisers, I never believed in Hillary Clinton's chances. I always said that Obama would be nominated."
One Obama priority may not be as controversial in Paris as it was in Berlin: the US call for Nato allies to contribute more troops to the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2008/jul/25/uselections2008.germany
And this:
The Obama-Sarkozy two-step was riveting. Obama passed his critical commander-in-chief test:
"So good luck to Barack Obama. If he is chosen, then France will be delighted. "
"If that's not an Obama endorsement from the Elysée Palace, I don't know what is. Fair enough: The world has shrunk.
Obama, all silky brilliance, merited the endorsement. He dissected the caricatures that have undermined U.S.-European relations (Europe's militaristic America, and America's won't-get-their-hands-dirty Europeans). He noted Sarkozy's merit in shattering "many of these stereotypes."
He offered a succinct summary of how to wield American might: "An effective U.S. foreign policy will be based on our ability not only to project power, but also to listen and to build consensus."
On specifics, he aced every item, identifying a nascent peace quest between Israel and Syria as a potential "game changer" that has received insufficient U.S. attention; calling for a "steady and prudent" troop withdrawal from Iraq in the light of improved security; pairing two additional U.S. brigades in Afghanistan with a call for greater commitment there from NATO allies "not restrained in terms of their rules of engagement"; and warning Iran not to wait for the next president to stop its "illicit nuclear program" because pressure "is only going to build."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/27/opinion/edcohen.php
and:
"Even in Paris, some critics think that President Nicolas Sarkozy should postpone sending more troops until after the US presidential election. "If President Obama can provide all the manpower needed in Afghanistan, there is no need for us to commit more troops," said a Sarkozy security adviser.
Obama's move would suit Sarkozy fine because he's reducing the size of the French army and closing more than 80 garrisons."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07292008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_tour_de_farce_122049.htm?page=0
And from the French media, also back in July:
http://www.boursier.com/vals/all/sarkozy-souhaite-bonne-chance-a-obama-de-passage-a-l-elysee-feed-40315.htm
"Bonne chance à Barack Obama. Si c'est lui, la France sera très heureuse et si ce n'est pas lui,"
Good luck to Barack Obama, if it is him, France will be very happy".
It is interesting that these news items from July when the meeting happened all seem to agree while the Israeli "intelligence" on the very same event the very same meeting that emerges three months later, and coincidentally days before the election is reported quite differently.
> Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate's stance on Iran as "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content."
ReplyDeleteMatches the rest of his campaign quite nicely.
"Obama - Stance on Iran "utterly immature" well it all makes sense if you read at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaPolitics.htm
"The Obama File
Politics
Background
Barack Obama was born of Communist activists, mentored by a communist writer and activist, spent his college days hanging around radical activists, worked as a radical community organizer learning the radical tactics of Alinsky, kept contact with radicals through the years, attends a radical church, and today lends his political skill to the international goals of radical activists, and has radicals working on his campaign.
The fact is, Obama has been around Marxists, of one kind or another, since the age of 12.
Frank Marshall Davis
Accuracy in Media has an in-depth profile of a leftist who influenced Obama during his high school years. In an article entitled, "Obama's Communist Mentor," Cliff Kincaid identifies a member of the Communist Party USA, who has been influential in Obama's life and education, Frank Marshall Davis, who was a communist -- and born in Kansas.
Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his "poetry" and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, "Dreams From My Father," refers to him repeatedly as just "Frank." Frank is the black communist writer now considered by some to be in the same category of prominence as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker.
According to an interview with Dawn Weatherly-Williams, Obama returned to Hawaii in the fall of 1970 to attend Punahou School. He first met Frank Marshall Davis after he took the entrance exams.
Davis moved to Honolulu from Chicago in 1948 with his second wife Helen Canfield, a white socialite, at the suggestion of his friend the actor Paul Robeson, who advised them that there would be more tolerance of a mixed race couple in Hawaii than on the American mainland. Robeson, of course, was the well-known black actor and singer who served as a member of the CPUSA and apologist for the old Soviet Union. Davis had known Robeson from his time in Chicago.
The 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.
In his book, Obama writes about "a poet named Frank," who visited his family in Hawaii, read poetry, and was full of "hard-earned knowledge" and advice. Who was Frank? Obama only says that he had "some modest notoriety once," was "a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago..." but was now "pushing eighty." He writes about "Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self" giving him advice before he left for Occidental College in 1979 at the age of 18.
Obama quoted him as saying: "Leaving your race at the door. Leaving your people behind. Understand something, boy. You’re not going to college to get educated. You’re going there to get trained."
He added, "they’ll tank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you’re a nigger just the same."
Is it possible that Obama did not know who Davis was when he wrote his book? That's not plausible, since Obama refers to him as a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes and says he saw a book of his black poetry.
But why? What does Obama have to say about this curious omission? Could it have something to do with the fact that, by the time Obama wrote his book, he knew that Davis was a Communist? And that he deliberately covered this up? Or did he know it earlier?
This is the key question: What did Obama know and when did he know it?
Which of course raises the disturbing questions that must be asked:
Did Davis recruit Obama? [... much more on original post]