Looking to France for Strength

The Wall Street Journal recaps the French admonishment of President Obama's naive UN speech. Excellent in that it was completely unreported in other American media,

They also add new data. This was not just frustration with a speech. France and the UK tried to get the President to make a strong speech at the UN and confront Iran in tandem. Instead, Obama wanted to take his hope and change act on the road.

Both countries wanted to confront Iran a day earlier at the United Nations. Mr. Obama was, after all, chairing a Security Council session devoted to nonproliferation. The latest evidence of Iran's illegal moves toward acquiring a nuclear weapon was in hand. With the world's leaders gathered in New York, the timing and venue would be a dramatic way to rally international opinion.

President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard. He had been "frustrated" for months about Mr. Obama's reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn't want to "spoil the image of success" for Mr. Obama's debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed back a day to Pittsburgh, where the G-20 were meeting to discuss economic policy.

Stunning.

UPDATE: @MajoratWH (Whose tweets from WH press conferences make Twitter worth signing up for): Gibbs: at Geneva IAEA talks the US will confront Iran "on behalf of the world" and Iran will show "the world" its true nuke intentions.

Let Them Eat Cake Posted by John Kranz at September 29, 2009 11:26 AM