Something rotten in the land of tricolor JNS reflects on Paris’s pernicious policies

The Israeli publication Jewish News Syndicate has featured a thought-provoking article by Martin Sherman, exploring France's detrimental policies in the Middle East and the South Caucasus. 

With seven years of operational experience in the Israeli defence establishment, Sherman brings a wealth of expertise to the table. He is the founder of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and actively contributes to the research efforts of the Habithonistim-Israel Defense & Security Forum (IDSF). Additionally, he is a key participant in the Israel Victory Project, further cementing his role as a prominent voice in strategic discourse.

We invite Caliber.Az readers to delve into Sherman's insightful analysis.

“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 defence 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 centres 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 neighbour Azerbaijan have been bitter adversaries for decades, which periodically erupted into military conflagrations, specifically over the Karabakh region. 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 favouring 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?

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.

By Tamilla Hasanova