Posted on 03/10/2003 8:18:14 AM PST by bonesmccoy
Monday, March 10, 2003 at 06:30 JST AIOI — The proposed March 17 deadline for Iraq to fully comply with all U.N. disarmament demands is Baghdad's absolute last chance to avoid military conflict, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe suggested Sunday.
"The 17th is the final opportunity. There have been a number of 'final opportunities' until now, but this is the true final opportunity," Abe said in a speech in Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture, apparently indicating this is Iraq's last chance to avoid war.
"There is enough time for Iraq to respond by the 17th," he said.
Abe was commenting on a revised draft resolution the United States, Britain and Spain presented Friday to the U.N. Security Council. With the adoption of the draft resolution, the three countries aim to pave the way for military action to forcibly disarm Iraq if it fails to respond satisfactorily by March 17.
But three of the council's five permanent members — China, France and Russia — continue to oppose a new U.N. resolution that would set the stage for a military attack against Baghdad. The U.S. and Britain are the two other permanent Security Council members.
The document says Iraq "will have failed to take the final opportunity...unless on or before March 17, 2003, the council concludes that Iraq has demonstrated full, unconditional, immediate and active cooperation with its disarmament obligations."
Abe urged the U.S. and Britain to continue working to seek the adoption by the Security Council of the resolution until March 17, reiterating the Japanese government's stance that a new resolution authorizing military action is desirable.
Asked how Japan will respond in the event the U.S. and Britain decide to attack Iraq without a new resolution, Abe said, "We will think about it when it happens."
Earlier Sunday, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on a TV program that Japan supports the adoption of the revised draft of the resolution because without it, Iraq is not expected to comply with all U.N. demands.
On whether U.N. weapons inspections should be continued in Iraq, Motegi, who recently returned from a visit to Baghdad, said, "Even with the high level of current diplomatic pressure, it only cooperates to this limited extent."
He said the adoption of the resolution is significant as it will serve as a litmus test on whether the international community is able to work together in the future to address similar problems.
Motegi was in Baghdad earlier in March as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's special envoy. He urged Iraq's leadership to fully cooperate with weapons inspections to attain a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Meanwhile in Aomori Prefecture, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said if a U.S.-led military operation in Iraq is prolonged, it may hurt the global economy severely, such as by escalating crude oil prices.
"If it becomes prolonged, we will be in a difficult situation in terms of aspects such as the price (of crude oil)," Hiranuma said in a speech at a forum to discuss energy issues in the village of Rokkasho.
"If by any possibility the conflict begins, it is very important for the world economy that it ends quickly," he said. (Kyodo News)
Truer words have never been spoken.
A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a mousetrap!
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning, "There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house."
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me; I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mouse trap in the house."
"I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, "Like wow, Mr. Mouse, a mouse trap; am I in grave danger, Duh?"
So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.
In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife and the farmer rushed her to the hospital.
She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
And so it may be with Germany, France and Belgium one day................................
MKM
And the next one will be, 'this is the Final Opportunity and we REALLY REALLY mean it this time.'...
Agreed. The whole thing is turning into a diplomatic Marx Brothers issue.
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