The French President Nicolas Sarkozy warns that a unilateral military strike on Iran by Israel would be an “absolute catastrophe.”
Sarkozy was speaking after a summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations (G8) in the central Italian city of L’Aquila on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the French president declared that major world powers in the G8 will give negotiations with Iran a chance until September.
He noted that Iran’s situation will be reviewed at a G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, western Pennsylvania, on September 24 and 25, Reuters reported.
“If there is no progress by then we will have to take decisions,” Sarkozy said.
Israel, which is considered as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Earlier US Vice-President Joe Biden also announced that the US would not stand in the way of Israel in its decisions on Iran.
“Israel can determine for itself… what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” Biden said.
“We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination — if they make a determination — that they’re existentially threatened.”
However, Amid US conflicting signals on an Israeli attack on Iran, a dignitary in Tehran rejects Tel Aviv’s threats as a ‘vain propaganda campaign’.
Ali-Akbar Velayati, foreign affairs adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said late Wednesday that any military attack against Iran would be a failure.
The former Iranian foreign minister said Israel’s allies intrinsically know that any military attack on Iran could backfire and upset the balance of the whole region.
“Those supporting this usurper regime … know that the Middle East is an extremely sensitive region with a very fragile political and economic balance.”
Tehran has repeatedly said that a military nuclear program does not fit within its defense paradigm, saying that its nuclear program is aimed at producing electricity to meet growing domestic demand.
