The situation is Sudan is extremely bad and looks as if it will only worsen without outside intervention. It is now far beyond irony that the African nation is a member of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. The US is pushing the United Nations to take action, but all efforts continue to be thwarted by signs which read arrêt:

France says it does not support US plans for international sanctions on Sudan if violence continues in Darfur.

The UN Security Council is debating a US draft resolution imposing sanctions on militias accused of "ethnic cleansing" against non-Arabs.

Many Americans might be vain enough to think the French do not like the draft resolution simply because it was proposed by the US. That truly does not seem to be the case here:

"In Darfur, it would be better to help the Sudanese get over the crisis so their country is pacified rather than sanctions which would push them back to their misdeeds of old," junior Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier told French radio.

France led opposition to US moves at the UN over Iraq. As was the case in Iraq, it also has significant oil interests in Sudan.

It is not as if the French are opposed to the use of sanctions. In fact they were all for the sanctions against Iraq, which granted them the inside track on Iraqi oil contracts. Their opposition to the use of force to depose Saddam was the argument that the sanctions would work, given enough time. Once the war was ended, France along with Russia opposed removing the sanctions even though Saddam had been deposed.

Now they are playing for the other side, trying to protect their own oil interests in Sudan...at the cost of human lives. Looking back at the last few years of French action at the UN, it almost appears as if they favor those governments which deny basic human rights to their people. I think the truth is not so much a focus on human rights (or a lack of them), but rather a disregard of such matters in their pursuit of the mighty Franc Euro.

In the same way, opposing the current US administration has nothing to do with this decision. It is merely icing on the cake.