Kindgo
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Russia Says No Proof Saddam Is Threat to U.S./But ARES must be well pleased
Ares God of WAR - must be well pleased!
Russia Says No Proof Saddam Is Threat to U.S.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/re...030319_548.html
March 19
— By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France and Germany said on Wednesday it was illegal for the Bush administration to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Russia maintained there was no proof Iraq posed a threat to the United States.
With war against Iraq inevitable, five foreign ministers spoke at a U.N. Security Council meeting called to hear a report by chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix, who expressed disappointment his inspections were curtailed after only 3 1/2 months.
But their statements were more subdued than in past such meetings, an apparent recognition that the Bush administration was not listening.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said no U.N. Security Council resolution authorized the use of force against Iraq outside the U.N. Charter and "not one of them authorizes the violent overthrow of the leadership of a sovereign state."
Ivanov said if there were "indisputable facts" showing Iraq posed a direct threat to the security of the United States "then Russia, without any hesitation, would use any means available under the U.N. Charter to eliminate such a threat."
"However, the Security Council today is not in possession of such facts," Ivanov said, in a reference to the Bush administration's linkage of terrorism to Saddam.
The Russian, French and German ministers as well as Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara of Syria, appealed for inspectors to complete their job and for the 15-member Security Council to endorse Blix's work program, which Washington has not done.
DISARMAMENT TASKS
"The fact of the matter is that the situation on the ground will change, and so will the nature of the remaining disarmament tasks," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the council. "Considering a work program at this time is quite simply out of touch with the reality that we confront."
But British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock said he saw a role for U.N. inspectors in verifying disarmament. "A more definitive work program will be possible when there is an administration in Iraq, which is prepared to cooperate fully, actively and unconditionally," he said.
In his address to the council, French Foreign Minister Dominique Villepin said, "We are meeting here today only a few hours before the guns are fired.
He said a war against Iraq would exacerbate terrorism in the Middle East, declaring, "To those who think that the scourge of terrorism will be eradicated through what is done in Iraq, we say that they run the risk of failing in their objective."
But he said Paris, which has led the international diplomatic campaign against a U.S.-led war against Iraq, believed it was now time for the international community to pull together and address Iraq's humanitarian needs.
On Monday, the United States, Britain and Spain gave up diplomacy at the United Nations, withdrew their draft Security Council resolution authorizing force and blamed France for not being able to get the minimum nine votes needed for adoption.
Villepin, in answer to questions later, said: "I believe this kind of criticism that we have seen in the last few days is absolutely unfair. Let us not seek out scapegoats."
MARS AND VENUS
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was blunter, saying that a large majority of people in Germany and the rest of Europe were troubled by the impending military action, having gone through he horrors of war all too often.
"Those who know our European history understand that we do not live on Venus, but, rather that we are the survivors of Mars. War is terrible," he said. "It can only be the very last resort."
Like Ivanov, he said, "There is no basis in the U.N. Charter for a regime change with military means."
The United States maintains that resolution 1441, adopted by a 15-0 vote on Nov. 8 and giving Iraq one more chance to disclose any weapons of mass destruction, legally justifies war. But many nations, including Syria, who voted for the measure, said they did not authorize force.
Also addressing the council was Francois Fall of Guinea, who presided over the meeting. The foreign ministers of Angola and Cameroon were in New York for another U.N. meeting but U.S. officials persuaded them not to attend, diplomats said.
Addressing the meeting, a day after 134 arms inspectors left Iraq, Blix expressed disappointment that the inspection process was curtailed.
"I naturally feel sadness that three and a half months of work carried out in Iraq have not brought the assurances needed about the absence of weapons of mass destruction or other proscribed items in Iraq, that no more time is available for our inspections and that armed action now seems imminent," he said.
Blix said Iraq had cooperated in the evacuation of the inspectors but not in delivering much of the needed documentation he requested on the banned weapons.
"The value of the information thus provided must be soberly judged. Our experts have found so far that in substance only limited new information has been provided that will help to resolve remaining questions," Blix said.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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