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1) Russia, France, Germany Stick To Anti-War Stance 2) China Remains Committed To Peaceful Resolution -Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Yuri Fedotov, said on Saturday that "Russia will do everything'' to block the war resolution. Even if the resolution attracts enough votes, "it won't pass because Russia, France, Germany and China consider this draft extremely negatively and won't allow its adoption,'' the Russian diplomat said. http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003031101771500.htm The Hindu March 11, 2003 Russia, France, Germany stick to 'no-war' stand By Vladimir Radyuhin MOSCOW MARCH 10. The leaders of Russia, France, and Germany reaffirmed their support for a peaceful settlement of the Iraqi crisis ahead of a crucial U.N. Security Council vote on Tuesday on a U.S.-British ultimatum to Baghdad. The President of France, Jacques Chirac, and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, called the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, after a report in the U.S. Time magazine claimed that Mr. Putin had assured the U.S. President, George W. Bush, on Friday that Russia would not veto a U.S.-backed resolution authorising the use of military force against Iraq. The Kremlin has not commented on the report, but the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Yuri Fedotov, said on Saturday that "Russia will do everything'' to block the war resolution. Even if the resolution attracts enough votes, "it won't pass because Russia, France, Germany and China consider this draft extremely negatively and won't allow its adoption,'' the Russian diplomat said. The Kremlin press service said the Presidents of Russia and France "came out in support of a peaceful politico-diplomatic solution to the Iraq problem.'' In the conversation between the leaders of Russia and Germany, the sides ``voiced satisfaction that the conclusions drawn by the international inspectors fully bear out the availability of real opportunities for a peaceful solution of the Iraqi problem.'' The Speaker of the Russian lower House of Parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, was in Baghdad on Monday to meet Saddam Hussein and convey an undisclosed message from the Russian President. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, left for a tour of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan today to discuss the Iraq crisis and other regional issues. The visit is apparently designed, among other things, to refocus attention on Afghanistan, rather than Iraq, as the much more important target for the anti-terrorist drive. A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow and Teheran shared the view that Afghanistan, ``the regrouping of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda continued to pose a serious threat to stability (in Afghanistan).'' ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003031104371400.htm The Hindu March 11, 2003 China stress on peaceful solution By P. S. Suryanarayana BEIJING March 10. China today joined two other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in reaffirming the diplomatic imperative of peacefully resolving the current crisis over the United States' insistence on using military force, if necessary, to disarm Iraq of its suspected potential to produce weapons of mass-destruction. China, the only veto-powered Asian country in the Security Council, today made common cause with France and Russia in reiterating the importance of a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis, ahead of the moves by the U.S. to hustle the U.N. into serving an ultimatum on Baghdad to show "credible" signs of disarming voluntarily or face war. However, there is no conclusive sign at this stage, in the official and diplomatic quarters in Beijing, about how China might respond if the U.S. decides to press for a division in the Security Council on the issue of using force. As seen from Beijing, there is still some ambiguity about how the U.S. might play its hand at the U.N. This accounts for China's style of playing this diplomatic poker game with its cards close to the chest. China's final decision will be a choice between exercising its veto and merely abstaining from any voting on a possible U.S.-piloted war mandate. Beijing's relative circumspection, despite the country's open pro-peace stance, is determined by a subtle consideration. It simply is that the anti-war powers at the U.N. should first be able to stop the U.S. in its tracks in the race to prevent hostilities. While these diplomatic niceties are discernible behind the scenes here, the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, has told the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, that the international community's view in favour of a peaceful resolution might take a longer time than a U.S.-led war, to disarm Iraq. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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