Regards, Ivan
Posted on 02/15/2003 5:44:15 PM PST by MadIvan
Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, has rebuffed the controversial plan drawn up by France and Germany last week aimed at avoiding military action in the Gulf.
The peace proposal, which argued that extra time and resources should be given to the United Nations weapons inspectors, also called for the deployment of 1,000 armed UN peacekeeping troops.
While the plan was welcomed by Russia and deepened divisions within the UN Security Council, Mr Sabri flatly rejected any suggestion that blue-helmeted peacekeepers could operate in Iraq. "No Iraqi would accept the deployment of such a force," he told the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat.
While he did not doubt the desire of some international parties to "face up to the logic of war and aggression", Mr Sabri claimed that any peace initiative that did not have Washington's backing was bound to fail.
Yesterday a leading Iraqi newspaper, the government-owned al-Jumhouriya, put a positive spin on the report given to the Security Council by the UN weapons inspectors, claiming that it had left the United States and Britain more isolated than ever in their efforts to sanction the use of force against Iraq.
On Friday Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei told the UN that they had discovered no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but accused Iraq of making omissions in its arms declaration.
As 3,000 Iraqis took part in a protest against the war in Baghdad, the inspectors visited nine sites, including a Baghdad facility that produces rocket parts, as their hunt for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons continued. An IAEA team also carried out an aerial survey of the Iraqi capital.
Iraq's readiness to comply with UN resolutions will be tested this week when Mr Blix orders Baghdad to destroy Iraq's al-Samoud missile system and 380 newly-imported engines.
Al-Samoud missiles can exceed the 150-kilometre limit set by the UN. Without them, the Iraqi army's ability to resist any invasion force would be severely handicapped.
In a separate development, Nato ambassadors are expected to meet today in an effort to find common ground on planned military support for Turkey against possible attack by Iraq. Mr Blix's report did little to break the damaging deadlock on the issue and talks scheduled for yesterday were postponed to give more time for informal discussions.
Lord Robertson, Nato's Secretary General, is now expected to bypass the alliance's North Atlantic Council, at which all 19 members are represented, and convene a meeting of its Military Policy Committee, from which France is excluded because of its unique arm's-length relationship with Nato's military structures.
France, Germany and Belgium have blocked Nato's plans to send Awacs surveillance aircraft, Patriot missile batteries and specialist equipment to protect Turkey against chemical, biological and nuclear attack. They argue that this would wrongly signal that war with Iraq was inevitable. The row over the Turkish request has further poisoned relations between Paris, Berlin and Washington.
While diplomats said that there was now no prospect of ending French opposition to military support from Nato for Turkey's defences, they believe that Germany and Belgium, which have so far backed France, may be wavering.
The countries have faced fierce criticism from Nato's 16 other members and have also come under fire from the seven nations recently invited to join the alliance, who accuse them of a "breach of faith" for refusing to grant Turkey's request for help.
"If Germany can be won over," said a senior Nato diplomat, "it's unlikely that Belgium will want to be isolated as the only one of 18 full military members holding out against aid to Turkey."
In the meantime, Bulgaria has vowed to resist French attempts to bully it into withdrawing support for America's plans to disarm Iraq. Last week the French ambassador to Sofia warned Bulgaria that its pro-American stance could jeopardise its efforts to join the European Union.
"Bulgaria has to consider carefully where its long-term interests lie," Jean Loup Kuhn-Delforge said last week. "When people live in Europe they should express solidarity and think European-style."
Solomon Pasi, Bulgaria's foreign minister, condemned the French as neo-appeasers. "We all remember the hesitancy of the Allies, who weren't sure whether to attack Hitler. They could have prevented so much," he said.
"We're in a situation where we have a moral imperative to act and act now."
Regards, Ivan
"We're in a situation where we have a moral imperative to act and act now."
Way to go Bulgaria!
Regards, Ivan
Weapons from France and Germany...
-- worth many millions of dollars to Iraq.
Oil agreement with Iraq...
-- worth billions of dollars to France.
Refusal of even Iraq to back the cockamamie disarmament plan from France and Germany...
-- PRICELESS
Well, I guess there's a first time for everything! ;)
Don't you worry, you'll be "not accepting" the deployment of an entirely different force sometime around the first week of March.
This line jumped out from the Bulgarian French ambassador. European or not, people should think in the interests of their own country and not a collective.
FRANCE AND GERMANY LEARNING WORLD POLITICS
Islamic logic at its best.
Better to die than cave to the infidel.
The sidewalks of lower Manahttan still reverberate with the sound of the innocent Americans who jumped 90 stories to their deaths.
To all of those nattering nabobs who say why Iraq and not North Korea, I say just wait and see what happens.
Can't make up for all of the damage BILLARY! did in eight years to the military in a few months, but things are about to get straightened out.
"Bulgaria has to consider carefully where its long-term interests lie," Jean Loup Kuhn-Delforge said last week. "When people live in Europe they should express solidarity and think European-style."
The Bulgarians should tell the French to take the EU and shove it!
"We're in a situation where we have a moral imperative to act and act now."
BRAVO Bulgaria!
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