French President Chirac’s announcement on Thursday that France would consider using nuclear weapons against any country that launches a terrorist attack against it is political bombshell. Not even George Bush has gone as far as saying that, even though he might like to. Chirac’s threat is alarming. Clearly, had Al-Qaeda flown hijacked planes into the Eiffel Tower or the Montparnasse Tower rather than the World Trade Towers, Chirac might have nuked Kabul. Again, not even George Bush considered that — or if he did, he wisely kept quiet about it.
Far more dangerous than conjecture, however, is the effect Chirac’s words will have in the present situation, with international attention focused on Iran’s nuclear plans and those of North Korea. In the case of Iran, France is heavily involved alongside the UK and Germany in the joint EU effort to stop Tehran reprocessing uranium and developing nuclear technology. Like its EU partners, it suspects Iran of wanting to develop not nuclear energy but nuclear weapons. Yet here is the same France that not only has some 350 nuclear warheads but also now threatens to actually use them. The word “hypocrisy” springs to mind. No wonder the Germans are furious with Chirac’s intervention. The threat undermines any moral legitimacy France has in campaigning against other countries obtaining the bomb. By extension, it is bound to cripple the EU effort to get Iran to rethink its nuclear plans. Chirac could not have chosen a more inopportune moment to come out with this extraordinary threat.
What on earth was going through his mind? Where is the threat to France? Which country would want to unleash a terrorist attack on it? Yes, there are terrorists out there who might want to attack; they have done it before. But a state? The one worry is that Chirac was thinking of Syria; relations between Damascus and Paris are at their lowest ebb for years. Or maybe Iran? In which case, it raises questions about the French naval force currently in the Gulf of Oman as part of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom and the war on terror — except that Operation Enduring Freedom is about Afghanistan and the French media have showed that the force could attack unnamed targets in the Middle East. Does the force possess nuclear missiles?
Whatever the answer, it is still inconceivable that France would launch a nuclear attack on any country. It is, after all, the same France that three years ago argued so convincingly in the UN against intervention in Iraq without international consensus and due legal process. But here is Chirac threatening to act unleash nuclear weapons unilaterally. If the threat is real, the world will have to re-evaluate its attitude to France. In fact, it is almost certainly a case of political bravado: Chirac the unpopular (and he has never been more unpopular) trying to revive his ratings with a bit of saber rattling. But at what cost? It exposes France to accusations of hypocrisy and cripples the EU’s efforts with Iran. Empty threats can do as much damage, albeit in different ways, as real ones. This has not been Chirac’s finest moment.
