-Caveat Lector- http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2002-10/26/article08.shtml
France to Submit New Iraq Draft, Massive Washington Anti-War Demo Planned Massive anti-war demonstrations are planned later Saturday in Washington PARIS, October 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - France plans to submit its own draft resolution on a settlement to the Iraq crisis to the United Nations if no accord is reached with the United States, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Saturday, October 26. "There is still work to be done, progress to be made and we have said so to our American friends for weeks," De Villepin said, adding that Paris would try to work with Washington on the basis of the proposed U.S. draft. "If there is no breakthrough, we shall obviously officially submit our own document. We want to reach an agreement," he said. France wants a unanimous vote in the Security Council "to send a clear and strong message" to Iraq, said De Villepin, but added that for Paris the use of force cannot be automatic and can only be a last resort. After the U.N. Security Council adjourned for the weekend Friday, October 25, the crunch stage of negotiations over a new Iraq resolution has arrived. Five hours of informal talks failed to resolve differences over a U.S. draft resolution condemned by Baghdad as a pretext to war. The talks are expected to resume Monday, October 28, when council members are to be briefed by chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). France and Russia Friday circulated rival proposals to tone down a tough U.S. draft, on which Washington could seek a vote at any time. "The hardball is beginning," said a diplomat from one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the council, as the 15-nation body prepared for a closed-door session. At least nine "yes" votes, with no vetoes, are required if a resolution is to be approved, reported British daily The Independent. The proposed U.S. resolution, co-sponsored by Britain, gives far-reaching powers to the U.N. weapons inspectors and lays down a tight timetable for Iraq to comply fully with the demand for unfettered access to his suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons facilities. If not, then Baghdad will face unspecified "serious consequences" – which France and Russia say is coded (as) prior approval for military action against the Iraqi regime, bypassing France's public demand for a second resolution authorizing the use of force. The U.S., however, says it will not countenance anything but minor changes to its seven-page text. The tough terms, it insists, are non-negotiable. "This is now a game of chicken," one official said. "The U.S. is daring France and Russia to stand in its way, and risk a top level rupture in international relations. They are daring the U.S. and Britain to go it alone, without security council approval." Washington and London believe the French can be won around, even though the best to be hoped for may be abstention. The tougher problem is Russia. If the dispute is to be resolved by the end of next week, as an ever-more impatient Bush administration wants, officials believe the impasse will have to be settled at foreign minister level – or higher still. Diplomats add the hostage crisis unfolding in Moscow could soften Russia's resistance. Opposition to strikes against Iraq ,which the U.S. is framing as part of the war against terrorism, would be hard to sustain by a Russia trying to stamp out what it describes as terrorism within its own borders. As the diplomatic maneuvering intensified, British and U.S. officials got down the arduous task of cajoling and persuading – and they began counting heads on the largely skeptical full security council, as they make an effort to line up the seven additional votes they need. They are confident of four or five already and believe other potential supporters are waiting for France to show its hand. Surprisingly, a prominent player in the maneuvering could be Mexico, which has currently some serious disputes with the U.S., and is keen to show to the rest of the countries that it is not a mere creature of Washington. Attention, meanwhile, shifted to Washington, where the U.S. kept up its pressure on the world body to act as the U.S. draft continued to draw criticism. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte had the council secretariat publish his draft resolution as an official document at the start of Friday's talks, a step usually taken just before a vote. But diplomats said in this case it appeared to be a procedural maneuver to prevent any other member getting in first with an alternative draft, and noted that the text could still be amended. "We went through our draft with other members of the council. We heard their views and we are going to take them on board," deputy U.S. ambassador James Cunningham said. With a two-day lull at the United Nations, attention moved south to Washington, where several thousand marchers were, meanwhile, preparing to converge Saturday to protest preemptive U.S.-led military strikes on Iraq. The event organizers said some 100,000 protesters would show up for the event, although Washington police spokesman Quentin Peterson said the protesters requested a permit for only 20,000 marchers. The organizers promised it would be the largest anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam era in the early 1970s. "The people of the United States can stop the war. They have done it before and they can do it now," said Mara Verheyden-Hillard, one of the event organizers. The organizers said similar protests were scheduled Saturday in San Francisco and Chicago, as well as cities in Mexico, Japan, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Belgium and Australia. The demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco are organized by a coalition of anti-war, social justice and civil rights groups. Event speakers include rights advocate Jesse Jackson, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. "We feel this war is unjustified and unjust," said Michel Shehadeh, another event organizer, who represents a pro-Palestinian group. Clark, U.S. Attorney General from 1967 to 1969 under then-president Lyndon Johnson, has traveled to Baghdad frequently to protest U.S. sanctions. Bush said he would reject any resolution curbing his ability to force Iraq to disarm. "We won't accept a resolution which prevents us from doing exactly what I have told the American people is going to happen," Bush said at a joint appearance in Texas with visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin. "If the UN won't act, and if Saddam won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him," he said, referring to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. China, another permanent council member, wants to avoid misunderstandings about wording in the U.S. draft which declares Iraq "in material breach" of its obligations under council Resolution 687, which set the terms of the February 1991 ceasefire to end the Gulf War, ambassador Wang Yingfan said. "We have our reservations about 'material breach'. We do not wish to have any wording which is unclear," Wang said. In Baghdad, Iraq's ruling Baath party urged Security Council members to thwart the draft resolution, charging its unrealistic conditions served merely as a pretext for a U.S. attack on Saddam Hussein's regime under a U.N. cover. "The provisions of the American draft are not just ... unrealistic. They have been deliberately crafted to create a pretext for aggression against Iraq under an international cover," said the party's mouthpiece, the newspaper Ath-Thawra. Washington is seeking to include provisions that would make it impossible for Iraq to cooperate with U.N. arms inspectors, thus enabling it to resort to "the so-called automatic use of force" against Baghdad, the paper said. It said that by blocking the U.S. draft, council members would "tilt the balance toward a peaceful settlement" of the standoff over Iraq's disarmament. An estimated 5,000 people protested U.S. Iraq police in late September, and some 20,000 people gathered in New York's Central Park to protest a possible war in early October. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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