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France to
oppose new UN resolution on Iraq
French
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said
France would oppose a second UN resolution on
Iraq if it comes to a vote, emphasizing that
his country thinks the new resolution is
unwarranted.
In an interview
with the BBC television that was broadcast on
Sunday, de Villepin said: "Are we in such
a situation? No. Do we need a second
resolution? No. Are we going to oppose a
second resolution? Yes, as are the Russians
and many other countries."
"When we
wrote together the Security Council resolution
1441 (last November), what did we say? We said
we should work through the inspections until
the point when we found ourselves in a
deadlock," he said. "It is for the
inspectors to write a report saying that they
can not work any more," he said, adding
that "90 percent of the world
community" shared French thinking on the
Iraq issue. "Peace is a very important
thing. It is a very strong benefit for
mankind. We should only accept the use of
force when we have tried everything. Have we
tried everything? France says: 'No'," he
added.
However, the
French foreign minister did not told BBC
whether France would actually veto the new
Iraq resolution or abstain from voting on it.
"We are not a pacifist country," he
said, "We are ready to take full
responsibility and if the use of force is
absolutely needed, then of course we might
take these decisions."
Backed by the
United States and Spain, Britain has tabled a
new UN draft resolution on Iraq to the
Security Council last week, declaring Iraq is
in noncompliance with earlier UN resolutions
and would face "serious
consequences".
The
Anglo-American tough line on Iraq has been
criticized by France and Germany, who have
clearly expressed their objection to a war
with Iraq without further UN approval and
urged more time for UN arms inspectors to
continue their work in Iraq.
Car bomb
explodes in Venezuelan oil field
A car
bomb exploded early Sunday in Venezuela's
northwestern oil field of Maracaibo, injuring
nine people, police said.
The blast also
destroyed three cars and damaged buildings,
including a local office of US oil company
Chevron Texaco, said the police. The car was
parked outside the home of Antonio Melian, who
took part in the two-month strike in December
and January designed to oust President Hugo
Chavez, according to the police.
The attack was
the third within a week in Venezuela following
bomb explosions near Spanish and Colombian
diplomatic buildings in Caracas, the capital,
on Tuesday injuring four people and causing
damage to surrounding buildings.
Maracaibo, the
capital of Zulia state some 550 kilometers
northwest of Caracas, was one of the areas
most heavily affected by the strike, which
crippled the oil production of Venezuela, the
world's fifth largest oil exporter.
British
paper: Attack on Iraq soon after UN vote
The
United States and Britain are set to attack
Iraq shortly after the United Nations Security
Council votes on a second resolution, with or
without further UN approval, the Sunday
Telegraph newspaper reported.
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair was prepared to launch
military action on Iraq no matter whether
Britain, the United States and Spain won UN
backing for the second resolution on Iraq they
tabled last week, the paper quoted some
government officials as saying. "Win or
lose at the UN, the Iraqi army will get
flattened quickly. It will be almost
immediate. We are not going to hang
around," a senior minister told the paper
on condition of anonymity.
"There is
a sense of immediacy. It will be two, three
weeks from now. Not longer. This is a phony
peace," the minister said.
Backed by the
United States and Spain, Britain tabled a new
draft resolution on Iraq to the Security
Council members last week, declaring Iraq was
in noncompliance with earlier UN resolutions
and would face "serious
consequences."
Prime Minister
Blair, who has voiced his convince that his
country and the United States would win
support for the second Iraq resolution, said,
in an interview with The Guardian newspaper
published on Saturday, that he was "truly
committed" to disarming Iraq, brushing
aside the massive anti-war demonstrations and
revolt within his Labor party.
Appeal for
Saddam's resignation gains ground in Arab
world
With
heavy cloud of war casting over the Persian
Gulf, more Arab countries are publicly lending
their support to a controversial call for
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's to step down.
The United Arab
Emirates (UAE) floated the idea at the 15th
Arab League (AL) summit held Saturday in
Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh,
becoming the first Arab nation publicly to
call for Saddam's resignation. The UAE appeal
suggested that Iraq should come under
temporary United Nations and Arab League
tutelage once Saddam had stood down
voluntarily.
However, the
appeal was so controversial among the
traditionally divided Arab world that the AL
summit even did not discuss it. In rare unity,
Arab leaders issued a final communiqué at the
end of the summit strongly rejecting any war
on Iraq, while stressing the importance of
protecting the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Iraq and other Arab countries.
But privately,
many Arab leaders began endorsing the idea as
a viable alternative to a possibly disastrous
war. And the UAE said Sunday it will continue
to push for its appeal for Saddam's exile in
order to achieve the peaceful settlement of
the Iraqi crisis.
Speaking on the
sidelines of the meeting of the Gulf
Cooperation Council foreign ministers held in
Doha Sunday, UAE Foreign Minister Rashid
Abdullah El-Noaimi said he would put forward
the idea again to the upcoming summit of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
to be held in Qatar Wednesday.
Regardless of
the controversy and sensitivity of the UAE
idea, there are signs indicating that it is
gaining ground in the Arab world as Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain on Sunday publicly
joined the chorus for Saddam to step down.
On Sunday,
Kuwait's Council of Ministers praised the UAE
call for being "aimed at protecting the
unity of Iraq, protecting its brother people
from destruction, ruin and loss of life, and
avoiding a destabilization of security in the
region." Kuwait, which was invaded by
Iraq in 1990, has been hosting 140,000 US and
British troops, which are ready for an
invasion of Iraq under the excuse of disarming
it of weapons of mass destruction.
Saudi Arabia
also hailed the UAE call on Saddam to quit as
"courageous." A senior Saudi
official said in Riyadh that Saudi Arabia
believes UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan
al-Nahyan "was taking the interests of
the Iraqi people into account."
In Abu Dhabi,
visiting Bahrain's King Hamad also said he
supported the UAE call, because it is
"sincere advice to the Iraqi leadership
which has the freedom" to accept or
reject.
The United
States and Britain are currently leading a
massive military buildup in the Persian Gulf
for a possible invasion of Iraq to disarm
Saddam of alleged weapons of mass destruction.
The US government has made it clear that
Saddam's exile could be the only alternative
to a military invasion to disarm Iraq.
By calling for
Saddam's resignation and peaceful settlement
of the Iraqi crisis, Arab leaders apparently
aim to head off a possibly disastrous war that
could further destabilize the region and even
threaten their own rules.
Arab leaders
fear that the US could set an ominous
precedent by invading and forcing the change
of regime in Iraq, since many of them are
often accused by Washington of ruling by
dictatorship and having bad human rights
record.
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