France balks at US plan for phased lifting of Iran nuclear sanctions

“For France, any agreement to be acceptable will have to give concrete guarantees on all issues. We won’t bypass any of them,” the French delegation to the nuclear talks in Lausanne insisted before the Iranians walked out Friday. The French position is unacceptable to the Iranians, who argue they would never be able to prove a negative, and disprove evidence of a weapons program, said a European diplomat. He aded there was no way France would relax its position, 

When US President Barack Obama called his opposite number in Paris, he heard the same answer from Francois Hollande.