Soft controls are soft. The Americans would no doubt view the authority of the FN groups at about on par with any other international norm, legal document or trade agreement. That is, a few tiers lower than Trumps used diapers in terms of significance.

They’ve also already setup the narrative that a small ethnically based minority group being able to dictate terms to a majority of voters is undemocratic / anti-American – a sentiment that has enough merit to garner some centrist support, but is extreme enough it can be coopted into more drastic measures. If there’s a vote in favour of separation, and it ends up ‘blocked’, that’ll be grounds for escalation in their view.