France Delivers Nuclear Threat
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By-John Thornhill in Paris
and Peter Spiegel in London
Published: january 19 2006
The Financial Times
http://news.ft.com

Jacques Chirac, France's President, has threatened to use nuclear weapons against any state that supported terrorism against his country or considered using weapons of mass destruction.

In a high-profile speech on Thursday to update military officers on France's strategic doctrine, Mr Chirac said the end of the cold war had removed neither the threats to peace nor the Justification for a nuclear deterrent.

Citing the dangers of regional instability, growing extremism and the proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Mr Chirac said France's nuclear deterrence remained the fundamental guarantee of its security.

Although Mr Chirac conceded that the country's nuclear arsenal could not deter fanatical terrorists, he said it could help prevent states sponsoring those terrorists.

"The leaders of states who use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using, in one way or another, weapons of mas destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part," he said
"This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind."

Mr Chirac's comments come in the midst of deteriorating European and American relations with Iran, which last week indicated it would restart research into a nuclear programme.

Analyst's said Mr Chirac's comments could directly affect the ability to negotiate a settlement with an increasingly beligerent Tehran.

"It expands the role of nuclear weapons and it makes it more difficult to argue against an Iranian nuclear weapons programme," said John Wolfsthal, a nuclear arms expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It reaffirms the discriminatory nature of the current system."

Opposition politicians in France denounced Mr Chirac's comments as irresponsible.

France, which acquired an autonomous nuclear deterrent in 1964, spends almost $3.6bn a year, or Just under 10 per cent of its defence budget, to maintain its nuclear deterrent, including about 350 warheads.

However, some politicians have questioned its relevance and complained about its cost in a post-cold war world.

Francois Heisbourg, director of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, said the new doctrine could raise a potential credibility problem--what yardstick would be used to measure a response to a terrorist attack?

He said the President's speech could also influence the international debate surrounding Iran's nuclear program. "It is rather difficult to persuade someone to renounce the acquisition of nuclear weapons when you are explaining how wonderful they can be," he said.

Mr Chirac said France's nuclear deterrent also formed a "core element in the security of the European continent" as the 25 members of the European Union developed a common security and defence policy.

His warning that nuclear weapons could be used against terrorist states puts him more in line with the US's new controversial nuclear posture, unveiled in 2002, which also cites nuclear arms as a credible deterrent to rogue states armed with non conventional weapons.

Source:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e805e2dr-88e6-11da-94a6-0000779e2340.html