FRANCE: The French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has shocked the French political establishment by adopting a more intransigent line on Iran's nuclear programme than even the US or Israel.
If she is elected next spring, Ms Royal said in the last press conference of her five-day Middle East trip, she will oppose the Islamic Republic having a civil nuclear power programme.
Ms Royal also reversed earlier positions on contacts with the Palestinian group Hamas and Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace. She also implied approval of Israel's construction of a "separation wall" on Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
Ms Royal's statements came as a surprise to those who thought she would continue the Gaullist tradition of an "Arab policy" distinct from unconditional US support for Israel.
"She appears to have aligned herself with Israel after French criticism of her meeting with a Hizbullah deputy in Beirut last week. In similar fashion, she has repeatedly retreated from domestic policy proposals when they created controversy.
After meeting the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, on Monday evening, Ms Royal said: "You have before you the only French political leader who has expressed herself against Iran having access to a civil nuclear programme. That is the greatest danger for the security of Israel and the rest of the world.
"One mustn't let Iran have a civil and thus military nuclear programme. That will be my position if I am elected president of the republic."
Ms Royal said Mr Olmert congratulated her for her stance on Iran. The French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, accused her of calling into question the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which promises civil nuclear power to states that renounce nuclear weapons.
Iran is a signatory to the treaty, which guarantees "the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination . . ."
Ms Royal reversed her earlier position that "one must talk to everyone" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that "in the present state of things, there was no question of talking to Hamas".
After visiting the headquarters of Unifil in southern Lebanon on December 1st, Ms Royal said Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace "must cease".
In Jerusalem, she said: "I understand that the number and nature of these overflights has already decreased. Those that continue are linked to a certain number of facts." The French foreign and defence ministries have protested bitterly about the continuing overflights.
Regarding Israel's "separation wall", which was condemned by the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Ms Royal said there was "a problem with the outline" of the wall but that "when it's necessary for security, a construction is justified".
The right-wing presidential candidate and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was to meet the Israeli foreign minister, Tsipi Livni, in his ministry here last night. Ms Livni had dinner with Ms Royal in Jerusalem on Monday night.
Ms Royal's new pro-Israeli stance makes the French presidential race resemble more than ever a US campaign, where candidates often attempt to outdo one another in professing friendship for the Jewish state.