- UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - France
said Monday that nothing would justify an immediate military attack on
Iraq, countering British and US insistence that time is running out for
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm.
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- "Nothing justifies cutting off inspections to enter
into war and uncertainty," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin
told a news conference at the United Nations Security Council.
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- Speaking earlier, the minister said United Nations arms
inspections in Iraq were "taking place in satisfactory conditions"
and should be strengthened.
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- "Already we know for a fact that the Iraqi weapons
of mass destruction programmes have been largely blocked, even frozen,"
he added.
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- "Every day we are stronger from the information
we are getting on the ground, so we must do everything possible to strengthen
this process."
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- De Villepin spoke after chairing a top-level meeting
of the UN Security Council on strengthening the fight against international
terrorism.
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- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the council
that time was running out for Iraq, echoing mounting warnings from the
US administration.
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- "There has to come a moment when our patience runs
out, and we are now near to that point with Iraq," said.
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- After the meeting, Straw told reporters he was "unimpressed"
with an offer from Iraq to cooperate more with UN weapons inspectors.
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- Iraq made the offer in a 10-point joint declaration,
signed with chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei in Baghdad.
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- "Iraq must stop this cat and mouse game. I am unimpressed
with what they have done today, finding a few more shells, offering a bit
more cooperation," Straw told reporters.
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- "The simple truth is, they should have been cooperating
in this way from the very minute that Resolution 1441 was passed,"
he said, referring to the UN Security Council resolution giving Iraq a
last chance to disarm.
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- US Secretary of State Colin Powell was similarly dismissive,
describing the Iraqi offer as "just more of the same".
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- He added: "Iraq has an obligation to provide to
the inspectors all the information that they need."
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- But De Villepin stressed that the council "collectively
made a choice for inspections" and added:
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- "The crisis in Iraq is something of a test, and
the stakes are enormous, if only because you cannot separate Iraq from
other proliferation issues. If war is the only way to resolve this problem,
we are going down a dead-end."
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- France, Britain and the United States are among the five
permanent council members, each of which has the power to veto any resolution
authorizing military action against Iraq.
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- "The unity and cooperation we have maintained since
the start of the Iraqi crisis have been exemplary," De Villepin said
in English.
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- "Unilateral military intervention would be perceived
as a victory for the law of the strongest, an attack on the rule of law
and on international morality," he went on.
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- Inspections were the means to disarm Iraq peacefully,
he said.
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- "We should not take the risk to endanger the lives
of innocent civilians or soldiers, to jeopardize the stability of the region
and further widen the gap between our peoples and our cultures," he
went on.
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- "We cannot gamble with peace -- to build peace requires
more effort than to make war," he said later through an interpeter.
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