Behind the scenes of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran, France is emerging as a skeptic of the American approach to the negotiations. Specifically, France is “concerned the Obama administration … despite its assertions to the contrary wants an Iran deal at almost any price,” according to a report yesterday by Agence France-Presse.

One of France’s main concerns is the incomplete Arak heavy water reactor, which when it eventually comes online could be used to make plutonium for an atomic bomb.

Paris is said to have pushed for stringent inspections of Iran’s nuclear energy program, and a broad dismantling of facilities and centrifuges.

Reports prior to the extension agreed to last month in Vienna indicated that the United States was considering a deal that would allow Iran to unplug, not dismantle, its centrifuges, a step that would be reversible within days.

A potential deal with Iran was scrubbed last year after Fabius termed it a “sucker’s deal.” At the time the main French concern was the heavy water production facility and reactor at Arak, which could provide Iran a path to a plutonium-based nuclear bomb. Recent reports of American charges that Iran had been cheating on last year’s Joint Plan of Action concerned its unreported acquisition of materials necessary for the construction of the Arak facility.

[Photo: U. S. Department of State / WikiCommons ]