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Journalism of Courage
Divided European Union leaders sought to unite on Iraq at an emergency summit on Monday, putting the onus on Baghdad to disarm and accepting that the use of force could be a last resort if it failed to comply. But while there was a broad agreement to give UN weapons inspectors more time, the 15-nation bloc was split on how long to wait before declaring that President Saddam Hussein had failed to rid his country of weapons of mass destruction.
The leaders’ summit was an attempt to find common ground after a month of bitter division over Iraq, in which they have traded barbs and issued rival statements and open letters.
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France to oppose
second UN resolution |
| BRUSSELS: French President Jacques Chirac said on Monday there was no need for a second UN resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq and France would oppose any new resolution. Arriving for an emergency EU summit, Chirac said the international community was pursuing the aim of peaceful disarmament of Iraq through weapons inspectors, and they alone should say when that effort had reached an end.
‘‘We are committed in the framework of resolution 1441 to the path of disarmament through inspectors, who alone can stop this process,’’ he said. ‘‘We consider that war is always, always, the worst solution. That is our position which leads us to conclude that France could only oppose a second resolution,’’ Chirac said. (Reuters) |
It was also a test for US-European relations, fraught by tensions over Iraq at the United Nations and in NATO.
France, Germany and Belgium defused some tension on the eve of the meeting by lifting a month-long blockade of limited NATO measures to prepare to protect Turkey in case of war on Iraq.
The impasse over sending Air Defence missiles, early warning aircraft and anti-chemical and biological warfare units to Turkey, a likely launchpad for a US strike on Iraq, was broken by using a NATO committee which does not include France.
Britain acknowledged public opposition to war but said the time for Iraq to disarm peacefully could not be open-ended. Germany, which has previously opposed war even if sanctioned by the UN Security Council, signalled it will not block an EU consensus to recognise that military action could not be ruled out as a last resort.
‘‘We are not standing in the way of a compromise. But I think that is the wrong discussion. The question is, what must we do so that we do not come to the use of military means,’’ German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said. (Reuters)
