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Barack Obama and Sarkozy stand side by side on Iran â€“ and hamburgers

31 March 2010 04:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Nicolas Sarkozy dispensed with Gallic fussiness about food on his visit to Washington yesterday to dine in the city’s most famous fast food joint, Ben’s Chili Bowl, APA reports quoting â€œThe Guardianâ€ newspaper.
The restaurant, with its selection of cheap hamburgers and ’half smokes’ â€“ a sort of cholesterol-laden hot dog â€“ could never be described as haute cuisine, yet the French president’s wife Carla Bruni opted for a half smoke and then, perhaps surprisingly for an ex-model, ordered a second.
The trip was a piece of crowd-pleasing propaganda on a two-day US trip designed to show that relations between the US and Europe remain close. Links between the two have been somewhat frosty since Obama pulled out of a trip to a European Union summit and by rows over aircraft orders and financial regulation.
But yesterday Obama made a fuss of Sarkozy, describing him as his "dear friend" and France as America’s oldest ally, standing side by side from Yorktown to Normandy to Afghanistan.
Sarkozy, needing the boost of a Washington visit to help his dropping popularity ratings and the setback for his party in the regional elections, responded in kind, saying he did not understand where reports of a US-European rift had come from.
Obama, along with France, Britain and Germany, is pushing for tougher United Nations sanctions against Iran but needs the co-operation of Russia and China. He said agreement had not yet been reached but predicted it would be within a matter of weeks.
"My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring," Obama said. "I’m not interested in waiting months ... I am interested in seeing that regime in place within weeks."
Obama said the long-term consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran are unacceptable and that Tehran had so far rejected diplomatic entreaties.
"The door remains open if the Iranians choose to walk through it," he said.
The US set a deadline of December last year for agreement on sanctions but the deadline passed without a deal.
Sarkozy, echoing the US president, said the time had come to make a decision. He also approved of Obama’s more aggressive diplomatic approach towards Israel over its Jewish settlement programme.
Neither president referred to an expected US request for more French troops for Afghanistan.
In a lighter momement at the press conference, Sarkozy mentioned he had seen a picture of Obama on the wall at Ben’s Chili Bowl. The French president, not often noted for his modesty, said he anticipated that his own might one day be nailed there too.