Something rotten in the land of tricolor
While France is the origin of the principles of modern
democracy, it has also shown a disturbing affinity for tyranny.
JNS
Nov 5, 2024
“I have tried to lift France out of
the mud. But she will return to her errors. … I cannot prevent the
French from being French.” — Charles de Gaulle
Bizarre developments seem to be emerging
in what is considered by many—rightly or wrongly—the home of modern
democracy, for there appears to be a growing alignment between Paris and
the tyrannical theocrats of Tehran, particularly over the fate of
war-torn Lebanon.
Reuters reported that the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, was quoted in a recent interview with Le Figaro as saying his country would be ready to “negotiate” with France on the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701, the very motion that failed so disastrously to bring stability to Lebanon following the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Accordingly, it appears that Paris and
Tehran view Lebanon not as an independent state with its own sovereign
government but rather as a vassal state subordinate to them both.
This bilateral initiative, with its
manifest disregard for Lebanon itself, drew a sharp rebuke from Lebanese
Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who stated that such a negotiation was the
prerogative of the Lebanese state. In a rare and audacious reproach of
Iran, he expressed “surprise” at Ghalibaf’s move, describing it as
“blatant interference in Lebanese affairs” and an attempt to “establish a
rejected guardianship over Lebanon.”
Significantly, The Tehran Times, a regime-affiliated media channel, reported
on an Oct. 12 telephone conversation from Iranian President Masoud
Pezeshkian to French President Emmanuel Macron devoted to increasing
pressure on Israel to stop what he described as “genocide” and “war
crimes” in Gaza and Lebanon. Pezeshkian praised the recent steps taken
by the French government condemning Israeli actions in Lebanon and
suspending arms shipments to the Israel Defense Forces, citing them as
positive moves towards peace.
Complicit in suppression?
Another perturbing development has recently come to light following a two-year investigation by France 24
revealing that hunting cartridges made by the Franco-Italian ammunition
manufacturer Cheddite were used during the violent crackdown on the
2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests sparked by the death in police
custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman, arrested for not
wearing hijab as required. Reportedly, 551 people died (including almost
70 children) as a result of the regime’s repression in the months that
followed the initial uprising.
According to the France 24 probe, these cartridges are widely available across Iran—in stark violation of the 2011 sanctions
imposed by the European Union. It appears that the ammunition may have
been routed into Iran via Turkey, where Cheddite held shares in a
weapons manufacturing company. Interestingly, similar munitions were
reportedly used against Southern Azeris—an ethnic minority constituting
nearly a third
of Iran’s population—during the suppression of a protest against
persecution, discrimination and erasure of Azerbaijani culture and
language by the regime.
France’s aberrant conduct—as a power
allegedly associated with the West, its values, and its objectives—is
apparent elsewhere regarding the provision of arms.
Useless UNIFIL
Indeed, as I pointed out
last November, French Defense Minister Sebastien
Lecornu approved the delivery of several dozen French-made armored
vehicles to the Lebanese Army, ostensibly to “assist them in their patrol missions within the country [so] it could coordinate well with UNIFIL [the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] as tensions mount between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.” In other words, as i24-News
remarked, France is providing armored personnel carriers to the
Lebanese Army for use in the areas controlled by Hezbollah, despite
previous knowledge that Western military equipment supplied to them has
ended up in the hands of the Iranian terror proxy. As the ALMA think-tank warned,
Hezbollah’s infiltration of the Lebanese Army, and its utilization of
its infrastructure, materiel and personnel, implies there is a tangible
risk that French equipment and armaments will end up being used against
Israel.
French animosity toward Israel was also on display in Paris’s sharp
rebuke of the IDF when it fired on UNIFIL positions in Southern
Lebanon. France accused Israel of endangering UNIFIL personnel and
preventing them from fulfilling their peacekeeping mandate—blithely
ignoring that (a) the force has been an abysmal failure in keeping the
peace in Lebanon; and (b) Israel urged that its troops evacuate the
combat zone so as to avoid the risk of injury.
Paris’s pernicious policies
Further revelations of French anti-Israel
bias have been exposed regularly over the last several months. In June,
France’s Defense Ministry issued a decree banning Israeli participation
in a premier weapons exhibition, Eurosatory. The fact the ban was struck down by the French judiciary did little to deter the Macron government from trying to impose an additional ban
on Israeli companies from taking part in another event—Euronaval Salon,
a naval defense fair scheduled to take place between Nov. 4 and Nov. 7.
Israel has once again vowed to challenge this decision in French
courts.
To top all this off, Macron, whose own country has been the victim of Islamist savagery, is—astonishingly—promoting an arms embargo
against Israel for its military response to even greater Islamist
savagery, in which 1,200 of its citizens were massacred and
mutilated—the equivalent of almost 8,000 French citizens in proportion
to its population, almost seven times that of Israel’s.
Sadly, Paris’s pernicious policies extend
beyond the Middle East and into the Caucasus, where a perturbing
convergence of Iranian and French objectives appears to be emerging.
This centers largely around their approach towards Armenia, which for
years functioned as a conduit for goods to Russia and Iran in
contravention of the Western sanctions against those two countries.
Diverging from the West?
Of course, Armenia and its neighbor
Azerbaijan have been bitter adversaries for decades, which periodically
erupted into military conflagrations, specifically over the
Armenia-dominated enclave of Nagorno Karabakh. However, since
Azerbaijan’s decisive victory in 2023, there has been a spluttering
peace process, which may hold out the promise of a lasting resolution of
the hostility between the two countries. In this regard, some have
suggested that France and Iran have a vested interest in undermining
this process. Indeed, Azerbaijan has complained
that Paris has been biased against it, regularly favoring Armenia,
arguably because of the influence of the substantial Armenian diaspora
in that country.
Moreover, there are growing ties between
Armenia and Iran involving multi-billion dollar deals and military
cooperation that have led to assessments that Armenia is becoming an
Iranian proxy in the Caucasus. The tension between Tehran and Baku is
hardly surprising. After all, Azerbaijan is Israel’s leading supplier of
crude oil, an important commercial partner and a large importer of
Israeli armaments. These cordial relations between the Jewish state and
Azerbaijan, a Shia Muslim state, is an anathema to the Iranian regime,
Israel’s most virulent enemy.
Iran is aware of the potential for closer
ties with France. Indeed, earlier this year, the then-newly appointed
Iranian ambassador to France stressed the importance of the ties between
Tehran and Paris. According to informed sources, Iran perceives France
as standing apart from the rest of the West—specifically the United
States and its Anglophonic allies, including the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand.
An affinity for tyranny?
Philippe Pétain (left), the leader of the Vichy government, shakes hands with Adolf Hitler
It remains to be seen if the recent events
in the Middle East and Israel’s resounding successes against Iran and
its emasculated proxies cause Paris to consider recharting its
ill-advised course. Of course, in assessing this issue, it would be
prudent to remember France has a history of an affinity for tyranny.
After all, it was not only the source of the noble ideal of Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité but also of the home of the Vichy government that willing collaborated with Nazi Germany, the all-time tyranny of tyrannies.
