INTO THE FRAY: Something rotten in the land of the Tricolor?

Martin Sherman | October 27, 2024

While France is the origin of the principles of modern democracy, it has also shown a disturbing affinity for tyranny. 

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.

Lebanon as a vassal state?

Thus, recently Reuters reported that in a recent interview with Le Figaro, the Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, was quoted as saying his country would be ready to “negotiate” with France (!) on the implementation of UN Resolution 1701, the very motion that failed so disastrously to bring stability to Lebanon following the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Accordingly, it appears that both 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 curious 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 October 12 telephone conversation from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to France’s President Macron devoted to increasing pressure on Israel to stop what he described as “genocide” and “war crimes” in both Gaza and Lebanon. Pezeshkian praised the recent steps taken by the French government condemning Israeli actions in Lebanon and suspending arms shipments to the IDF, citing them as…positive moves toward peace.

Complicit in suppression?

Another perturbing development has recently come to light following a two-year investigation by FRANCE 24, which revealed 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 (Jina) 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 EU. 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 close to 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 several months ago, 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 as tensions mount between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”  In other words, as i24-News remarks, 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 the Lebanese Army has ended up in the hands of the Iranian terror proxy. Indeed, as the Alma think-tank warned, Hezbollah’s infiltration of the Lebanese army, as well as 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 South Lebanon. France accused Israel of endangering UNIFIL personnel and preventing them from fulfilling their peacekeeping mandate—blithely ignoring that (a) the force has clearly 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. Last 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 4 and 7 November. Israel has once again vowed to challenge this decision in French courts.

To top all this off, President Emmanuel 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 1200 of its citizens were massacred and mutilated—the equivalent of almost 8,000 French citizens in proportion to its population, almost 7 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, Amenia 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 both 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 in 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 US and its Anglophonic allies including the UK, 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—which willing collaborated with Nazi Germany, the all-time tyranny of tyrannies.

Martin Sherman spent seven years in operational capacities in the Israeli defense establishment. He is the founder of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a member of the Habithonistim-Israel Defense & Security Forum (IDSF) research team, and a participant in the Israel Victory Project.