Reuters, Paris, 27 August 2009 – French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened on Wednesday to press for tougher sanctions on Iran and repeated his call for broad international action to curb financial market abuses.

 

 In his annual address to France’s ambassadors, Sarkozy repeated his longstanding call for a stronger governance of the global economy before a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh next month. ’The current crisis should make us profoundly rethink a form of globalization that has gone completely astray,’ he said. ’It is for a simple reason which is that there is a world market but there is no global regulation.’

 

 He also lambasted the leadership of Iran and said tougher sanctions would have to be discussed if Tehran does not change its position on the contentious nuclear program that the West believes is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb. Iran says its program is aimed at civil nuclear energy but the standoff has been fueled by Western criticism of its disputed June presidential election. ’It is the same leaders in Iran who say that the nuclear program is peaceful and that the elections were honest. Who can believe them?,’ Sarkozy said.

 

 He said the issue would be discussed when world leaders meet in New York at the end of September and he said that if there were no change in Iran’s stance, ’the question of very substantial strengthening of sanctions will be clearly asked.’ Fresh from a three-week vacation in the south of France after a health scare just before the summer break, Sarkozy, again staked his claim to leading the response to the financial crisis a day after setting new limits on bankers’ bonuses. ’I will not accept that those who plunged us into the most serious crisis since 1930 are allowed to start again as before,’ he said. ’France will not accept this. Everyone should accept responsibility.