A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

It puzzles me how Jacques Chirac might think that the following approach will be successful in getting Iran to abandon its nuclear program:

President Jacques Chirac has broken ranks with the US and Britain by calling for the suspension of UN Security Council action against Iran during negotiations over its nuclear programme.

In a radio interview yesterday before flying to New York for the UN General Assembly, the French President provoked a diplomatic storm by backing Iran's demand that the Security Council should halt its involvement in the nuclear dossier.

The demand is spelt out in Iran's confidential 20-page response to a Western offer of technological and economic co-operation in return for a freeze on nuclear activities which could lead to production of a nuclear weapon. The Independent has obtained a copy of the document.

M. Chirac suggested that the group of six nations involved in talks with Iran - Britain, the US, France, Germany, Russia and China - should "set an agenda, then start negotiations".

"We must, on the one hand, together, Iran and the six countries, meet and set an agenda, then start negotiations. Then, during these negotiations, I suggest that the six renounce referring [Iran to] the UN Security Council and that Iran renounce uranium enrichment during negotiations," M. Chirac said.

Why the regime is not pressured to renounce uranium enrichment before or after the negotiations is, of course, anyone's guess. To be sure, sanctions can oftentimes be an imperfect tool of state coercion, but it is notable that Chirac is not calling for any other tools to be used instead of sanctions. I trust that I am not alone in thinking that the Islamic regime in Iran will hardly find such methods persuasive in getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.