SARKOZY SETS HIS LIST OF PRIORITIES, WITH IRAN FIRST

And, there is even a not-so-veiled threat of force involved:


PARIS, Aug. 27 — In his first major foreign policy speech as president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy calling the Iranian nuclear crisis “the most serious weighing on the international order today” and said that Iran could be attacked militarily if it did not live up to its international obligations to curb its nuclear program.

“A nuclear-armed Iran is for me unacceptable,” Mr. Sarkozy said in a speech to France’s ambassadorial corps, stressing the urgency of finding a negotiated solution. “This approach is the only one that would prevent a catastrophic alternative: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.”

Mr. Sarkozy stressed that such an outcome would be a disaster and did not say that France would ever participate in military action against Iran or even tacitly support such an approach. But the mere fact that he raised the specter of the use of force is likely to be perceived by Iran as a warning of the consequences of its continued course of action.