USA AND FRANCE AGREE ON NEW SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN

CBC:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner spoke Friday of a common front against Iran's nuclear program that included support for new sanctions against Tehran.

During a joint press conference with Kouchner in Washington, Rice said the United States and France agree on how to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"I think that there's, essentially, no difference in the way that we see the situation in Iran and what the international community must do," Rice told reporters.

The two countries were doing groundwork for a new UN Security Council resolution at a meeting in Washington on Friday of political directors from six major nations that have been trying to negotiate with Iran — Russia, China, Britain and Germany, as well as France and the United States.

The French government under President Nicholas Sarkozy has shifted the country's policies more in line with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, who had a frosty relationship with Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, highlighted by France's vocal criticism of the Iraq war.

THIS IS THE FINAL STEP BEFORE GOING KINETIC.

(SOMEONE AT COLUMBIA U. BETTER ASK AHMADINEJAD WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT THIS.)