Reading this article at the Telegraph, one phrase jumps out,
Brown and Sarkozy rowed with Obama over Iranian nuclear announcement
Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy had a behind-the-scenes row with Barack Obama over last week’s announcement about a secret uranium enrichment plant in Iran.
The Prime Minister said it was time “to draw a line in the sand” on Tehran’s nuclear programme while the Frenchman mocked Mr Obama for the naivety of his “dreams” of eliminating nuclear weapons.
According to French officials, Mr Brown and particularly Mr Sarkozy wanted to make a declaration on Sep 24, either at the Security Council meeting chaired by the US president or just afterwards.
The Europeans considered that there was no better stage from which to tell the world that the three countries’ intelligence services had worked together to uncover an underground uranium enrichment facility under construction at Qom.
But Mr Obama did not want to “spoil the image of success” of his disarmament session, which passed a resolution to work towards a nuclear-free world and a host of measures designed to control the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce existing stocks.
It’s only the image what matters.
Nuclear threats from a fanatical regime? Pshaw!