Title: Message
Russia Rejects U.S.
Resolution on Iraq ;)
From
Associated Press
Conflict: Russian foreign minister announces Moscow's position after
talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Foreign Minister
Dominque de Villepin.
Tuesday, 22 October, 2002, 11:25 AM PDT
MOSCOW
-- Russia rejected the new U.S. draft resolution on Iraq Tuesday, dealing a
sharp blow to American efforts to gain U.N. backing for the automatic use of
force if weapons inspectors are thwarted by Baghdad.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's statement said the U.S. document failed
to meet Russian criteria.
His
comments to Russian reporters were the Kremlin's first official reaction to the
U.S. proposal presented on Monday to the other four permanent members of the
Security Council.
"The
American draft resolution...does not answer the criteria which the Russian side
laid out earlier and which it confirms today," Ivanov was quoted as saying by
the Interfax news agency.
Ivanov
made the statement several hours after meeting with Hans Blix, the chief U.N.
weapons inspector.
U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte gave the complete U.S. draft to
envoys of the four other permanent council members -- France, Russia, China and
Britain.
Blix,
meanwhile, said he thought war with Iraq could be avoided if Baghdad proves it
does not have weapons of mass destruction. France and China remained guarded
about using force against Hussein.
"They
may have evidence, I am not brushing it aside, but in our archive there is no
clear-cut evidence. There are many questions, however, that we would like to
have answered by them (the Iraqis) and there are also many places we would like
to visit," Blix said.
Ivanov
made his comments after separate meetings with State Department Undersecretary
John Bolton as well as with Blix.
Russia, which holds veto power in the Security Council, has opposed
unilateral military action against Iraq. It criticized an earlier version of the
draft that would have envisaged the use of force if Baghdad failed to comply
with U.N. weapons inspectors.
White
House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the United States would continue to
push for one resolution.
"It's
a fact that they don't have forever. The United Nations is entering the final
stages on this and we'd like to see a resolution reached," he said. "Our
position remains the same -- one resolution is appropriate."
China
"will take seriously" any measure supporting U.N. weapons inspections and
leading to a peaceful settlement of the standoff between Iraq and the United
States, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regularly
scheduled briefing.
However, he added: "We have always held that the U.N. weapons
inspectors should return to Iraq as soon as possible and the Security Council
should consider its next move according to the result of the inspection."
French
President Jacques Chirac did not react directly to the draft but suggested the
French were not close to supporting it.
"We
have our own appreciation of things, and we tell (the United States) that,"
Chirac said, even if "we don't say it in an aggressive way." He spoke to
reporters after a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen whose
country holds the rotating European Union presidency.
Earlier, before seeing the draft, French U.N. Ambassador Jean-David
Levitte said he did not think an agreement was close.
Washington's staunchest ally on the council, Britain, voiced its
support. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped the U.S. draft would be
approved.
At the
same time, Ivanov said Friday that the Security Council could consider
authorizing the use of force against Iraq if the inspectors report "problems" in
searching for weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, Blix, who said he thought a team of weapons inspectors could
be in Iraq within two weeks, issued his assessment as U.N. Security Council
members studied the revised U.S. draft of a resolution on Iraq.
"I
think that if Iraq helps create confidence that there are no weapons of mass
destruction, then I think there will be no war," Blix said.
Blix
said he would like to see the inspectors go to Iraq as soon as possible, but
that it was best for them to wait for the expected U.N. Security Council
resolution rather than receive new instructions after they had started work.
He
said it was important for the inspectors to travel to Iraq to provide a clearer
picture of the state of its weapons programs. Some countries, including the
United States and Great Britain, have said that Iraq has made strides in
developing weapons of mass destruction that pose a grave threat to mankind.
Also
Tuesday, Turkey warned Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions to avoid possible
military action, and in an apparent message to Washington, said any action ought
to have U.N. approval.
At the
end of a four-hour meeting, Turkey's National Security Council -- made up of the
country's military and civilian leaders -- issued a statement saying that "Iraq
should behave responsibly to avoid the necessity of military intervention."
Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has
repeatedly spoken out against any military campaign in Iraq, fearing it could
destabilize the region and harm the Turkish economy, which is suffering from its
worst recession in decades.
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accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed
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included information for research and educational purposes.)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.24C.russia.iraq.htm
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