"Le Canard Enchaîné", a VERY reliable and trustworthy political weekly in Paris, comments on information from the US Air Force that the French authorities got their hands on (not that they were supposed to).
See below...
According to the paper, the US Air Force prepared this report around the end of November. I have googled around but could find no reference to that report, which is descrubed as confidential.
The reports concludes that the US Air Force should NOT launch attacks aginst Iranian nuclear sites, for 3 reasons:
- risk of increased instability in Iraq
- increased risk of terrorist attacks on US soil
- risk of attacks on the oil chain and thus skyrocketing prices
It is nice to see that there are still sane voices to be heard in the US military, but will they be listened to? According to "Le Canard Enchaîné" (which, again, usually has excellent sources in the French government), both Chirac and the French DoD are pessimistic about the Washington-Tehran rerlationship, despite the current efforts of the European troika (France, UK, Germany) to find a peaceful solution to stop Iran's nuclear programme - and they expect Sharon to be used as proxy by the Americans. French military intelligence is apparently aware of various Israeli bombing plans which specifically target 3 nuclear sites.
Interestingly, the paper also reports that Iran is making a lot of discreet efforts to improve relations with the Europeans, including:
- trade discussions
- help in getting the two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq to be liberated
- depositing their reserves in Euros, in Paris, and not in dollars
- direct contacts between French and Iranian security service heads
Meanwhile, Iran also has its own "hawks" who are pushing for a hard line (no cooperation with Europe, no stop on the nuclear programme). Let's hope that neither group of hawks (in Washington and Tehran) prevail, and that the saner voice of diplomacy (where, for once, all of Europe is speaking as one) will prevail. But hope is all we have.