WESTERN and Iranian negotiators were putting the finishing touches on a far-reaching nuclear deal. Then, at virtually the last minute, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius joined in the talks. It didn’t take long for the negotiations to unravel — and for Fabius to publicly declare this round of the talks to be over.

It wasn’t the answer US, European or Iranian teams had been expecting. One Western official said Paris hadn’t been particularly involved in the painstaking negotiations that had taken place in the run-up to this weekend’s talks in Geneva.

“The French were barely involved in this,” one Western diplomat said. “They didn’t get looped in until a few days ago.”Yet the French response shouldn’t have been a total surprise. The socialist government of French President François Hollande has adopted a muscular foreign policy that has put it to the right of the Obama administration on Libya, Mali, Syria and now Iran.

Along the way, it has also become Israel’s primary European ally and — after the US — arguably its closest friend in the world.

Fabius, echoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is said to have had two serious concerns with the deal. First, the agreement failed to prevent Tehran from continuing construction on its nuclear reactor at Arak. Once the facility is operational, a key part of Iran’s nuclear programme would be immune to airstrikes because bombing the plant would lead to massive, deadly, radiation leaks. Fabius was also upset that the deal didn’t require Iran to reduce its stockpiles of 20 per cent enriched uranium, which is approaching weapons-grade. The Hollande government, Fabius told French radio, would not be part of a “fool’s game.”

Publicly, Secretary of State John Kerry refused to say anything critical about the French, emphasising instead that Iran and the so-called “P5 [plus] 1” had made substantial headway towards a deal and would continue the talks later this month.

“I’d say a number of nations — not just the French, but ourselves and others - wanted to make sure that we had the tough language necessary,” Kerry said on the “Meet the Press.”

In the French media, there were reports that the big powers were united — and that it was Iranian negotiators who ultimately balked at making a deal in Geneva. Privately, though, many diplomats were fuming at the French. However, Fabius has been a voice of caution on an Iran deal before — most recently at talks at the United Nations in September. “In the past years, we have been vigilant on this issue,” said one French diplomat told FP. “We have never been easy going on this.”

Fabius’ strong opposition to the emerging nuclear deal has won Paris some unexpected fans on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers from both parties want the Obama administration to maintain the current economic sanctions on Iran and even begin adding new ones.“Thank God for France,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Iran hawk, told CNN. “The French are becoming very good leaders in the Mideast.”

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, another hardliner, busted out his own basic knowledge of French to praise the Hollande government in its own language. “France had the courage to prevent a bad nuclear agreement with Iran,” he wrote on Twitter. “Vive la France!”

Thousands of miles away in Tehran, Iranian leaders reacted with fury, reupping some previous remarks blasting France. “French officials have been openly hostile towards the Iranian nation over the past few years; this is an imprudent and inept move,” tweeted the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “A wise man, particularly a wise politician, should never have the motivation to turn a neutral entity into an enemy.”

Beyond the rhetoric, France’s opposition to the deal carries clear risks. The US negotiators and their Iranian counterparts have both warned that the window for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue won’t stay open forever. Not too long from now, Iran will have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

If the talks fall apart, France may have effectively scuttled any option of ending Iran’s nuclear programme without using military force, something no country — including Israel — wants to do. Paris also risks seriously degrading its relationships with Washington and London, its two closest allies.“If weeks from now a deal is signed which forces Iran to even greater compromises, the French will come out well,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But if months from now diplomacy has fallen apart and conflict appears more likely, the French could go down in infamy.”

By arrangement with The Washington Post/Bloomberg News Service