Azerbaijan, Baku, 27 February / Trend corr D. Khatinoglu/ France's preparations, jointly with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, for manoeuvres in the Persian Gulf is a new step against Iran.
"It is not ruled out that France's manoeuvres in the Persian Gulf will be a step against Iran," an Iranian political scientist Mashallah Shamsalvaezin told Trend .
" France is going to hold joint manoeuvres with the UAE and Qatar in the Persian Gulf. An agreement on creation of a military headquarters by Paris, by the seaside of Abu Dhabi, was signed during Sarkozy's official visit the UAE in February," Financial Times reported on 23 February.
" France's manoeuvres in the Persian Gulf may be an indirect step against Iran," Shamsalvaezin, the expert on the Persian Gulf countries told Trend in a telephonic conversation from Teheran on 27 February. "In fact, the manoeuvres are held in order to check the defence opportunities of Qatar's armed forces and are being implemented on the basis of the military agreements between the two countries. It cannot pose any threat to Iran," he said.
According to the Iranian analyst Hossein Lajavardi, who works in France, France's foreign policy underwent serious changes since Nicolas Sarkozy became the President of the country. " France's relationships with the United States have one direction. The official Paris took a strict position against Iran and established a wide basis for itself among the Arab countries- which consider Iran can pose a threat for them," Lajavardi, the Chair of the Iranian Researcher Association, told Trend in a telephonic talk from Paris on 27 February.
According to IRNA, the Iranian official representative from the Iranian Foreign Ministry Mohammadali Hossein said to journalists at the beginning of February that the establishment of headquarters and its forces in Abu Dhabi by Paris will not positively affect the stability in the region and we oppose that. France's joint manoeuvres with Qatar and UAE will involve 1,500 French military men, 2 aircraft-carrier vessels and 8 fighter airliners.