France’s Sarkozy Now ‘Anti-Obama’

[Teresa]

 France's Sarkozy Now 'Anti-Obama'

Soon after Barack Obama won the White House, French President Nicolas Sarkozy referred to him as "my friend" and strove to become the first European leader to meet with the newly elected American.

Now the honeymoon between the two leaders is over, according to The Financial Times.

Sarkozy has now shifted to "an anti-Obama position," said Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, a spokesman for the opposition Socialists.

France turned down an American request to send more troops to Afghanistan, and Sarkozy has expressed frustration at what he perceives as Obama's equivocation over Iran's nuclear program and at the priority Obama has placed on the long-term goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons, the Times reports.

In a sharply worded speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Sarkozy alluded to Obama's disarmament goals.

"We are right to talk about the future, but before the future there is the present, and the present is two major nuclear crises," he said, referring to Iran and North Korea. "We are living in a real world, not a virtual world."

Jack Kelly wrote on the Real Clear Politics Web site that Sarkozy "was furious with Barack Obama for his adolescent warbling about a world without nuclear weapons" at a meeting Obama chaired of the United Nations Security Council.

Sarkozy is reportedly still miffed over Obama's refusal to attend an event with the French leader during his June visit to France to commemorate the D-Day landings, and has made disparaging comments about Obama's decision-making and lack of prior government experience.

"French frustration is aimed at Washington's hesitancy or even weakness," according to the Times.