Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Paris was
prepared to join other nations in imposing sanctions on Iran over its
uranium enrichment programme if the United Nations does not do so.
'In order to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, we must
strengthen sanctions,' Sarkozy said in an interview published Monday
in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune and on its website.
If reinforced sanctions are not agreed in the UN Security
Council, he said Europe should act on its own.
'For the European community itself to apply sanctions, that is not
unilateralism, that is an international, a multilateral decision.
Therefore, it is fine by me,' the French president said.
At the same time, Sarkozy distanced himself from statements made
by his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, on September 16, that
France was preparing for a worst-case scenario with Iran, and that
was 'war.'
'For my part, I don't use the word 'war',' Sarkozy said. 'France's
position, it's that: no nuclear weapon for Iran, an arsenal of
sanctions to convince them, negotiations, discussions, firmness. And
I don't want to hear anything else that would not contribute usefully
to the discussion today.'
Sarkozy also contradicted Kouchner on a possible trip to Tehran
to discuss the ongoing crisis.
'I don't think that the conditions for a trip to Tehran are
present right now,' he said. 'We can talk things over in the halls of
the United Nations. A trip to Tehran is something else.'
The interview was conducted late Friday, before Sarkozy left for
New York for his first appearance before the UN General Assembly.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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