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Chirac Says U.N. Inspectors Must Be Given Time
By Reuters
Friday 17 January 2003
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac said Friday United Nations weapons inspectors should be given the necessary time to complete their work in Iraq, adding that France believed war was the worst of all solutions.
``The inspectors have asked for more time... Wisdom obliges us to respond to their request and give them the necessary time to be able to deliver serious conclusions which can convince the international community,'' Chirac told a news conference.
He spoke alongside chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who was in Paris to brief the French president on his team's work in Iraq 10 days before its progress report to the U.N. Security Council. France is a veto-holding member of the council.
``We believe that if there had to be military action, this could only be authorized by the Security Council on the basis of reports by the inspectors,'' Chirac said.
``For France, war is always the confirmation of failure and is always the worst solution and has human costs difficult to justify,'' he said.
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Germany Unlikely to Back Iraq War Plan
By The Associated Press
Friday 17 January 2003
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany is unlikely to back any U.N. resolution to authorize war against Iraq, Defense Minister Peter Struck said in remarks published Friday that spelled out the Berlin government's stance with unusual bluntness.
Germany joined the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 1 and is set to play a pivotal role in Iraq diplomacy when it chairs the council next month. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has hinted that Germany will refuse to support a war resolution in the council, but Struck was more direct.
``The final decision can only be made when it's clear what we are voting on,'' he told the Rheinpfalz daily. ``But a 'yes' is basically not imaginable anymore.''
Schroeder has publicly opposed an Iraq war for months and has ruled out a German combat role. This week, he called for U.N. inspectors to be given more time to search for any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- a stand backed Friday by French President Jacques Chirac and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The inspectors have said that search could take months.
A poll released Friday showed strong public support for Schroeder's anti-war stand, which is credited with helping him win re-election last year. About three quarters of Germans -- 76 percent -- believe their country should vote against an Iraq war in the Security Council, the infratest-dimap poll said. No margin of error was given.
One of Germany's most prominent intellectuals, Nobel laureate author Guenter Grass, underscored his opposition to war with a caustic attack on President Bush, who he said was intent on provoking a war and motivated by gaining control of Iraq's oil.
``The arrogance of power of the one remaining superpower, America, keeps them from even considering any advice,'' Grass said on ARD television Thursday night. ``That is what makes a man like the current president such a public danger.''
Schroeder refused to be drawn Friday when asked by a television interviewer how Germany might vote in the Security Council, where it has no veto power. The main goal is to disarm Iraq, not to oust President Saddam Hussein, he told N-24 television.
More than 30 of the government's 306 lawmakers have signed a petition urging the government to vote against any U.N. war resolution.
Bush has vowed to disarm Iraq even if it requires military action without U.N. approval. Iraq says it has no weapons of mass destruction, an assertion contested by the United States.
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