-Caveat Lector-
http://truthout.org/docs_03/031703B.shtml
Paris, Moscow and Berlin Issue Declaration Against Iraq War,
Call for Ministers' Gathering
By Kim Housego
Associated Press
Saturday 15 March 2003
France, Russia and Germany called for the Security Council to
set a timetable for Saddam Hussein to disarm but issued a strong
statement Saturday rejecting a war on Iraq, a day before President
Bush and his top allies backing military action were to meet.
France's foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said his
country would accept "a very tight timetable" for Iraqi disarmament
- but not an ultimatum that would automatically trigger war, as
Washington wants. Still, he said, war appears increasingly
inevitable.
"It is difficult to imagine what could stop this machine," he
told France 2 television, before adding "one does not have the
right to be discouraged."
France, Russia and Germany have led opposition to military
action against Iraq and blocked a U.S. attempt to set a deadline
for Saddam to disarm or face war.
With some 250,000 U.S. and British troops in the Persian Gulf
ready to attack Iraq, President Bush meets with prime ministers
Tony Blair of Britain and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain - his top
proponents of military action against Saddam - on Sunday in the
Azores islands to plan their next step in the standoff.
The joint declaration was issued by France and its allies in a
clear move to present their case against war before the Azores
summit.
"We reaffirm that nothing justifies in the present
circumstances putting a stop to the inspection process and
resorting to the use of force," said the declaration, issued by the
Foreign Ministry in Paris. "The use of force can only be a last
resort."
The three nations called for Security Council foreign
ministers to meet on Tuesday to focus on "disarmament priorities
and draw up a strict and realistic timetable" to certify Iraq free
of alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix is to present his
latest report on Iraqi disarmament on Monday and lay out his plans
for upcoming inspections. He is expected to present the U.N.
Security Council with his list of top priority questions that Iraq
must answer about its chemical, biological and missile programs as
early as Tuesday.
The three nations said previous reports by Blix and the chief
nuclear inspector, Mohamed El Baradei, indicated that inspections
were producing results. "The disarmament of Iraq has started," the
declaration said. "Everything indicates that it can be completed
quickly."
The declaration was agreed upon Saturday by the foreign
ministers of France, Germany and Russia, a German foreign ministry
spokeswoman said. The three were in telephone contact with one
another, she said.
In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told
the Interfax news agency that Blix's report should outline "the key
remaining tasks in the area of disarmament," criteria that could be
used to assess Iraq's cooperation with inspectors in the future.
He said the inspections "should not have a limitless
character" and pointed to a 120-day period outlined in a joint
Russian-French-German memorandum submitted earlier to the Security
Council.
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