In a shocking accusation, French diplomats told Foreign Policy that they believe the Obama administration plans to replace Saudi Arabia with Iran as the central U.S. ally in the Middle East. (VIDEO: Reporter Grills State Department: Is United States Now A ‘Functional Ally Of Iran?’)

“Numerous French diplomats suspect that the United States… is on the verge of profoundly reshaping of [sic] its traditional alliance system in the Middle East,” reporters Joseph Bahout and Benjamin Haddad write, “moving [to] a system where Iran replaces Saudi Arabia as the central pillar of regional stability.”

“The nuclear talks, French diplomats suspect, are just one part of a strategic rapprochement with Iran,” the piece continues. “Washington has practically sub-contracted the war against the Islamic State’s forces in Iraq to Iranian special forces and Tehran’s Iraqi militia proxies. The French view this as a potentially counter-productive move, one more part of Washington’s turn away from its Sunni allies and toward Tehran.”

In recent months, the French have emerged as one of the preeminent, allied critics of the Obama administration’s Iran policy, second only to the Israelis. France has openly criticized the administration’s stance on a number of issues, and reportedly took the toughest stance against Iran at the nuclear talks in Switzerland. (RELATED: US Tries To Be Iran’s Ally, Enemy and Negotiating Partner)

French officials told the Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo last week that the United States has recently taken a “harsh” stance towards the country in retaliation for their hawkish policy: “There have been very harsh expressions of displeasure by the Americans toward French officials for raising substantive concerns about key elements of what the White House and State Department negotiators are willing to concede to Iran.”

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