U.S.-Iran: France May Be Last Best Hope To Prevent All-Out War

In diplomacy, there’s always room for talk, even when the window for negotiation seems all but shut.

Such is the scenario that Emmanuel Macron faces in wake of the assassination by the United States of Ghassem Soleimani, an act that has kicked up a whirlwind in the Middle East, with consequences that remain unclear.

After a telephone call with Donald Trump on Sunday, the French president called on Tehran to refrain from any “military escalation likely to further aggravate regional instability” and to put an end to the “destabilizing activities of the Quds Force” in the region. The statement, released by the Elysee presidential office, also noted “full solidarity” with Paris’ allies in regards to attacks that have taken place in recent weeks on coalition forces in Iraq.

[Iran announced overnight that it had fired missiles at several Iraqi military bases that host American troops. No casualties were reported.]

Macron, who has invested heavily in recent months to save the Iranian nuclear agreement (from which the United States withdrew in May 2018), wants to maintain a position of balance, without overtly criticizing the Trump administration. The Elysee says it wants to keep an eye on Iranian influence in the region, but without joining one camp or the other. The focus, in other words, is on prioritizing and anticipating.

Fearing greater regional destabilization, the French president’s top priority is the fight against armed jihadism. Tellingly, the Elysee was careful in its press release to avoid any mention of Soleimani’s killing. The issue didn’t appear either in the official reports that followed Macron’s talks, since Friday, with other actors in this developing crisis, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed ben Zayed.

On Sunday night, Macron signed a joint statement together with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for “deescalation.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Europeans had not been “helpful” enough in supporting Washington.

“Our role, because of the fact that we’ve kept in communication with Iran, is to make calls for calm,” says Michel Duclos, special adviser at the Paris-based Montaigne Institute think tank.

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Πηγή: www.worldcrunch.com