By Matthew Dalton

PARIS—French President François Hollande delivered a sharp critique of the Obama administration in comments published Wednesday, calling Washington afraid to use its power to stop the bloodshed in Syria but too eager to wield its economic might to penalize European companies.

The comments reflect a divide between France and the U.S. over how to respond to Russia’s bombardment of Aleppo, combined with long-simmering anger at Washington’s power to target European companies, most recently Deutsche Bank AG with an expected multibillion-dollar fine.

The U.S. has “too much power to take back money and not enough power to make peace,” Mr. Hollande said in an interview published in the French magazine l’Obs.

Some officials in Paris argue that the time has come to intervene with strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad—but insist that France would need U.S. participation to make such an operation feasible. U.S. President Barack Obama has resisted intervening directly in the Syrian conflict against the regime.

The Obama administration shut down talks with Russia on a cease-fire deal earlier this month, but Secretary of State John Kerry is still pursuing multilateral discussions that would include Russia. He is expected to attend international meetings on the conflict in the coming days. Russia has announced the talks would take place this weekend.

The White House also is considering non-diplomatic options in response to the Syria crisis, including providing more lethal weaponry to rebels vetted by the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as possible military strikes on Assad regime targets. The second option is considered unlikely to win approval from Mr. Obama.

Mr. Hollande, in his toughest critique yet of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy, said the decision not to retaliate against the Syrian government in 2013 for using chemical weapons encouraged Russia’s military expansion into Ukraine and Syria.

“This signal was interpreted as weakness from the international community,” Mr. Hollande said. “That’s what provoked the crisis in Ukraine, the illegal annexation of Crimea, and what’s happening in Syria right now.”

Mr. Obama had warned that Mr. Assad’s use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line” that could prompt military reaction from the U.S.

When evidence emerged that the weapons were used, Mr. Obama ordered preparations for an airstrike—but then decided to ask Congress to authorize the use of force against Syria. In the lull, Russia brokered a deal: Mr. Assad would surrender his caches of chemical weapons, and in exchange the U.S. would hold off on military action.

Mr. Hollande left little hope that the U.S. would change course on Syria during the last months of Mr. Obama’s term in office. Still, he said he didn’t feel abandoned by the U.S. president.

“He wanted to stay faithful to his pledge to no longer involve the U.S. in external operations,” Mr. Hollande said.