Chirac is adamant force is not necessary at this stage
Posted on 02/21/2003 12:43:03 PM PST by MadIvan
Chirac is adamant force is not necessary at this stage |
Mr Chirac was speaking at the end of a summit meeting in Paris with leaders from 51 African countries, who unanimously backed the French diplomatic stance on Iraq.
Meanwhile UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that the Iraq crisis is entering its final phase and that Britain will ensure that Iraq is disarmed and any threat from Saddam Hussein removed.
His comments came as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Rome for talks with his Italian counterpart, Silvio Berlusconi, to discuss possible military action against Iraq.
France, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is insisting that force should be used only as a last resort.
"Things being as they are today, everything argues for the fact that the goal can be achieved by peaceful means, that is to say through inspections, and not by military means," Mr Chirac said.
Among the African nations represented at the summit where Mr Chirac was speaking were the leaders of Angola, Cameroon and Guinea - all currently members of the Security Council.
Washington has indicated that it plans to lobby African countries to come round to its more hardline position.
In other developments:
The international diplomacy continued in Rome on Friday where Mr Blair and Mr Berlusconi, both strong supporters of President George W Bush's stance on Iraq, have been meeting.
Speaking after their talks Mr Blair insisted that force may be necessary if Baghdad persists in resisting UN pressure for Iraq to disarm.
Baghdad for its part denies having weapons of mass destruction.
"We have been trying to avoid war, but in the end I can't avoid it unless Saddam chooses the route of peaceful disarmament," Mr Blair said.
Both the British and Italian leaders are facing massive domestic opposition to a possible US-led war against Iraq and the issue has sparked several splits within Europe.
Nonetheless, Mr Berlusconi and Mr Blair both insisted that international resolve to disarm Iraq remained strong.
Despite the opposition of British church leaders the BBC's Rome correspondent David Willey said Mr Blair appeared convinced that he occupies the moral high ground and will be justified in sending British forces into battle.
US ready for war
This sentiment was echoed by Mr Straw who said: "The United Nations has been trying to remove a central pillar of Saddam's apparatus of terror - his weapons of mass destruction - for the past 12 years."
Mr Blair, who is to meet Pope John Paul II on Saturday, said Britain was working with the US on a second UN resolution that could pave the way to conflict.
Earlier, the American Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said the US was now ready for a war with Iraq if Mr Bush decided to give the order.
Mr Rumsfeld said there were "ample" US and other troops in the Gulf ready for military action.
The US and Britain - its main ally - now have more than 150,000 troops in the region along with dozens of warships and hundreds of aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Regards, Ivan
Among the African nations represented at the summit where Mr Chirac was speaking were the leaders of Angola, Cameroon and Guinea - all currently members of the Security Council.
You gotta be kidding - this country, which undoubtedly spends more money on our pets than the combined GDPs of these 3 crapola countries, is depending on their votes to decide what to do? I like GWB, but this is really poor judgment. We've got something like 16 existing Security Council resolutions against Iraq in the last 12 years on which to base our actions, so why do we need another? Why risk a loss? We ought to just tell the UN, and the Froggies in particular, to stick their heads where the Sun doesn't shine and do what we think is best for US.
As for me, I advise GWB to air drop about 10,000 guys speaking German into Paris. That ought to shut them up for a while, and be good for a few laughs. That, and there'd be lots of "almost new French rifles - never fired and only dropped once."
Gee, wouldn't it be a shame if one of our pilots made another mistake like in the '86 Libya raid and dropped a precision-guided munition onto the French embassy compound in Bagdad?
A: You can make a man out of snow.
Regards, Ivan
The French, under Chirac, held 6 Nuclear tests in the Pacific, despite world-wide protests. [Where was Al Sharpton for that protest?]
1996 Jan 27, The sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb was detonated. In 1998 the Int'l. Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that the test sites in the South Pacific would be contaminated for centuries. Plutonium particles were scattered in the sediment of the lagoons at Mururoa and FangatoufaThe French government also ignored protests against RU-486
1988 Oct 26, A French pharmaceutical company, Roussel Uclaf, announced it would halt worldwide distribution of RU-486, a pill to induce abortions, because of "an outcry of opinion at home and abroad." The French government ordered the company to reverse itself two days later.
I like that, but if you want to put it into a slogan, it needs to be catchier. How aabout "No Nukes for Oil!" (and put that on top of the photo of Saddam and Chiraq in the Osirak reactor)
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