French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the American news network CBS on Tuesday that an Israeli military attack against Iran would be “disastrous” and that Israel must understand that “we are determined to ensure its security.”
Hours before U.S. President Barack Obama opened a landmark summit of 47 nations on nuclear security in Washington, Sarkozy told CBS’s Katie Couric that “I would not want the world to wake up to a conflict between Israel and Iran, quite simply because the international community has been incapable of acting.”
“I consider the fact that Iran should get its hands on a nuclear weapon – a military nuclear weapon…dangerous and unacceptable. Unacceptable, quite simply. President Obama has wanted to stretch out his hand in order to show clearly to the Iranians that it was not they who were the target, but their leadership,” Sarkozy went on to say.
When asked whether he thought sanctions could really deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the French president replied that “I believe in the effect of sanctions, because I’ve been very impressed by the courage of the Iranian people. Those young kids, those women who went down into the streets of Tehran and major Iranian cities. What a fantastic example of courage they gave us…We can’t afford to be less courageous than they were.”
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