PARIS -- France and Russia made clear Wednesday that they were ready to use
their veto powers to block passage of a new Security Council resolution
authorizing force against Iraq, but Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said
the United States would go to war without U.N. backing if necessary.
Meeting in Paris, the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany
issued a statement saying they would not "let a proposed resolution pass
that would authorize the use of force."
Released two days before a crucial Security Council meeting to discuss
Iraqi compliance with disarmament requirements, the declaration added that
Russia and France, "as permanent members of the Security Coun cil, will
assume all their responsibilities on this point." The council's permanent
members have veto rights.
The statement, clearly aimed at a draft resolution submitted last month by
the United States, Britain and Spain that says Iraq has lost the last
chance to disarm, hardened the rift among longtime allies that has emerged
over Iraq. It made any diplomatic accord on the Bush ad¬ ministration's
plans for going to war appear unlikely.
The White House was dismissive of the statement, saying no conclusions
should be drawn from it about any vote next week on the resolution, and
President Bush pressed ahead with planning for a possibly imminent war.
"If the president decides, we are in a position to provide a military
option," Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander of American forces in the
Persian Gulf, said after meeting with Bush.
Senior Bush administration officials said plans for a major speech on Iraq
next week by the president were under review. One possibility, they said,
was that Bush might give Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a very short time
period to disarm completely, perhaps as little as 72 hours, before military
action.
With the prospect of a veto more real than ever, it was unclear whether the
administration would bring the Security Council resolution to a vote.
Powell told Russian television that the Bush administration was willing to
lead a "coalition of willing nations, either under United Nations authority
or without United Nations authority, if that turns out to be the case."
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix argued forcefully Wednesday for more
time to continue with the inspections.
"If we were to be given four months, I would welcome it," he said at a
press conference. "There were eight years of inspections and four years of
no inspections, and now we have had a couple of months. And it seems to me
a rather short time to close the door and say, 'This is it.'"
The position of France, Russia and Germany is that more time is needed for
inspections that are working. But Powell, in a forceful speech in
Washington Wednesday, was dismissive of the inspection process.
He said new information based on highly sensitive intelli¬ gence sources
showed that Iraq was making new rockets even as they were destroying old
ones. Moreover, meetings between Iraqi scientists and the inspectors --
hailed as a breakthrough by opponents of war -- were being bugged, Powell
insisted.
Powell said several council members agree with the United States on Iraq,
"and some of my colleagues ... three of whom I was watching on television
earlier today, believe the problem is there, the threat is there, but the
solution to it is, 'Oh, let the inspections keep going.'"
"What I didn't hear in their press conference today is for how long, and
how many more inspectors do you think will do what the number of inspectors
there now are unable to do," Powell said. "And there was very little
comment from them, today or in earlier days, about the basic fact that you
still don't have somebody who is complying."
Powell said Hussein is depending on opposition to the U.N. resolution to
avoid disarming.
"Divisions among us -- and there are divisions among us -- ... will only
convince Saddam Hussein that he is right," Powell said. "But I can assure
you he is wrong."
U.S. intelligence shows that Iraq has brought in machinery that helps
produce the banned Al Samoud 2 missiles, the secretary said.
"We have intelligence that says at the very same time, it has also begun to
hide machinery it can use to convert other kinds of engines to power [Al
Samoud 2 missiles]," Powell said. "Once again, he plays the double game;
even as he orders some to be destroyed, he is con tinuing with activities
that will allow more to be produced."
Powell went on to cite intelligence gathered in late January that shows the
Iraqi intelligence service transported chemical and biological agents to
areas "far away from Baghdad, near Syrian and Turkish borders, in order to
conceal them ... from the prying eyes of inspectors."
And last month, Iraq began transporting banned materials in old vehicles
and putting them in working-class neighborhoods outside Baghdad to thwart
U-2 surveillance plane overflights, Powell said.
"We also know that senior Iraqi officials continue to admit in private what
they continue to deny in public: that Iraq does indeed possess weapons of
mass destruction," he insisted.
In Paris, the declaration released jointly by the French, German and
Russian foreign ministers called for an acceleration of the arms
inspections. It further proposed that the U.N. weapons inspectors put
forward a detailed plan to allow the Security Council to evaluate the pace
and scale of Iraqi disarmament. But the Bush administration regards such an
approach as an intention to delay.
Russia's foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, who has been shuttling among
European capitals to discuss the Iraq crisis, said China, which also has
veto powers, shared the European approach.
At a news conference after releasing the document, the ministers were at
pains to make the argument that war in the Middle East would complicate the
resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and possibly inflame fresh
terrorist acts against the West.
The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, who has headed the
drive against armed intervention in Iraq, told the news conference that "a
conflict in Iraq will do nothing to facilitate a solution in Israel."
Any new resolution would require nine votes in favor and no vetoes to pass,
and there is a frantic struggle among the competing camps for the support
of undecided Security Council members. They are Pakistan, Chile, Mexico,
Angola, Guinea and Cameroon.
Vladimir P. Lukin, deputy speaker of the Russian lower house of parliament,
said Russia was taking a principled stand. "There is a principle here, a
basic principle," he said in an interview, echoing arguments repeatedly put
forth by French President Jacques Chirac, "that if someone tries to wage
war on their own account, without other states, without an international
mandate, it means all the world is confusion and a wild jungle."
Lukin, a former Russian ambassador to the United States, said he urged his
government to seek a compromise and to help the United States to save face.
But he added: "Do you know the difference between a policeman and a
gangster? A policeman complies with rules which are elaborated not by the
policeman, but a certain democratic community accepted by everyone. A
gangster implements his own rules."
The European declaration, issued after a working lunch by the ministers,
widened the rift among the European nations, some of which support Bush's
policies. Spain is a co-sponsor of the British-American draft resolution.
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Britain and the United
States intended to put their draft paving the way for military action to a
vote in the Security Council next week. Fielding questions in Parliament,
Blair said that would happen if chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reported
to the Security Council tomorrow that Saddam Hussein was still failing to
comply fully with the existing resolution 1441.
"It is plain at the present time he is not in such compliance," Blair said.
Ivanov, asked at the Paris news conference about a possible Russian use of
its veto, said, "If a new resolution is not necessary, it will not be
necessary to use the veto. If we must vote, our position is inscribed in
the declaration."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-iraq0305,0,3634502.story?coll=bal%2Dhome%2Dheadlines
