Michel Rocard: Fabius acted against France in nuclear negotiations

The French weekly Le Point has published new insights regarding conversations between Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France, and the then Iranian ambassador to France. This interview was published in the third issue of Tir 1395 (June-July 2016), where requests from the Iranian ambassador were made that apparently were never conveyed to the French government. Michel Rocard, who served as Prime Minister from 1988 to 1991, passed away on Tir 12, 1395 (July 3, 2016). In the published conversation, Rocard states that the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran requested a meeting with him and visited him. According to Rocard, this ambassador, who was dressed in a suit and vest and spoke French well, was previously a nuclear engineer, while his predecessor wore a turban. Rocard does not mention the name of the ambassador or the date of the meeting. However, based on other clues, this meeting may have taken place in 2009 (1388), when the Iranian ambassador in France was Seyed Mehdi Mirabotalebi, who held the position from 2008 to 2013. However, the ambiguity in Rocard's statements does not stop there. It is unclear why the former French Prime Minister introduced Mr. Mirabotalebi as a nuclear engineer, as this is not mentioned in Mr. Mirabotalebi's biography. Furthermore, Mr. Mirabotalebi's predecessor at the Iranian embassy in France, Ali Ahani, did not wear a turban. Setting aside these mistakes, Michel Rocard recounts that in the first meeting, the ambassador assured him that Iran was not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons but rather wanted to develop its 'soft power' in the region. With this explanation, Rocard felt reassured, and they went for coffee together. Rocard explains to Le Point's reporter that there is a fierce internal struggle in Iran between half of the clerics, supported by the military and modern scientists educated in the West, who want nuclear weapons, and the other half who absolutely do not want nuclear weapons and aspire to open up the global economy. He reminds that nuclear weapons have been condemned multiple times due to their contradiction with the Quran, and there is even a fatwa against nuclear weapons. Rocard's reference is likely to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's fatwa, but the former Prime Minister did not explain where he derived the contradiction of nuclear weapons with the Quran. In another meeting, the ambassador discusses the case of Clotilde Reiss, a French student detained in Iran, with Rocard. In this meeting, the Iranian ambassador states: 'It is true that this poor girl was not dangerous herself, and imprisoning her is not friendly, but I wish you had explained before cursing us that her father is a member of the French intelligence agency DGSE and her mother is a civilian employee of the Ministry of Defense, and she herself went to a city for training where our most important nuclear centers are located. In that case, we would have received less cursing and shown more flexibility in this matter.' Although Michel Rocard had opened a consulting office for international business after stepping down from official positions, the Iranian ambassador's visit to him could not have been for such consultations, as Rocard's consulting office primarily focused on French-speaking Africa, and Iran was not on his list of countries of activity. The Iranian ambassador explained the reason for approaching the former Prime Minister: 'We need modernization, technology, and commerce. We want to talk with the West, including France. There are two ways to do this; the official way, through the embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the parallel way, direct access to the President's office. The problem is that both ways are closed to us. Therefore, we have turned to you. Both the left and the right listen to you. Come to Iran. You could even bring that young girl - Clotilde Reiss - back with you.' That year, Michel Rocard did not go to Iran because the Elysee Palace did not approve of such a trip. Additionally, Jean-David Levitte, the special advisor to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, summoned the Iranian ambassador and strongly protested. Rocard's trip to Iran eventually took place on Ordibehesht 23, 1391 (May 12, 2012). The same day he returned from Iran, he went to the Elysee Palace to attend a lunch hosted by the new President, Francois Hollande, who had invited all former socialist Prime Ministers, but Hollande refused to discuss Iran with him. Rocard then requested a meeting with Laurent Fabius, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, but Fabius said: 'If you want to talk about your trip to Iran, I cannot accept you.' As a result, Michel Rocard did not report his trip to Iran to anyone. In response to a question from Le Point's reporter about advice he could give to Jean-Marc Ayrault, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Michel Rocard returned to the 5+1 negotiations with Iran and said that in those very difficult negotiations, Obama should have been supported. According to Rocard, half of those sitting around the table were obeying Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, who is paranoid and eager for confrontation with Iran. In those negotiations, the Sarkozy-Levitte line was followed. Alain Juppé pursued the same. Fabius continued the same policy without it being reviewed by the presidency or even at a broader level among the ministries. The former Prime Minister of France believes that in the 5+1 negotiations with Iran, Laurent Fabius acted against his own country.