- PARIS (Reuters) - French
President Jacques Chirac insisted on Friday there was still an alternative
to war in Iraq while a senior official hinted Paris might use its veto
to block any U.N. resolution authorising a military intervention there.
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- Chirac reiterated his stand, already the most openly
anti-war among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council, one day after President Bush declared "the game is over"
for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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- In a further sign of tension, a presidential aide told
the newspaper Le Monde that France was ready to veto any pro-war resolution
submitted without clear evidence that the U.N. arms inspections had failed
and Iraq presented a serious threat.
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- Russia, another veto-wielding Security Council member,
joined France on Friday in rejecting any U.N. war resolution right now
and permanent member China said it agreed with France that all efforts
should be made to avoid war.
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- "We haven't gone to the end, far from it...there
is still an alternative to war," Chirac said after meeting Finnish
Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen in Paris.
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- "I've spoken to numerous foreign leaders and can
see that this view is widely shared," added Chirac, who has been telephoning
leaders of states on the 15-seat Security Council to sound out their stand
on any vote.
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- "If there were to be any particular initiative taken,
notably war, there would of course have to be a new debate by the Security
Council," he said in a clear reference to the risk of unilateral action
outside of the U.N. framework.
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- AIDE EVOKES DE GAULLE
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- An unnamed Chirac aide told Le Monde that France was
ready to risk serious strains in its relations with pro-war powers United
States and Britain to defend its view that only the United Nations has
the right to declare a war on Iraq.
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- "If the question were put today, France would say
no to a resolution authorising the use of force," said the aide, described
by Le Monde as "an authorized commentator of presidential thinking."
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- France would maintain this position "as long as
there is no patent failure of the inspection system and the inspectors
do not say they have been hindered in their mission and an imminent danger
is not demonstrated," he said.
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- "If we don't agree, well then, we won't agree,"
the aide added. "And that won't be the end of anything, just like
de Gaulle's decision to pull out of NATO or his Phnom Penh speech did not
mean the end of French-American relations. Those ties have a thick skin."
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- During a visit to Cambodia in 1966, de Gaulle delivered
a speech criticizing the U.S. war in neighboring Vietnam.
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- French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin spoke out
on Thursday against any Security Council resolution authorising war for
the time being. The U.S. and Britain have said they would support a resolution
authorising an attack.
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- NO PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
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- Earlier on Friday, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie
insisted NATO should not begin boosting Turkey's defenses in case of a
war in Iraq and said France would not agree to do so when the alliance
reconsiders the issue early next week.
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- On Thursday, NATO postponed until next week a decision
on measures to protect Turkey but Secretary-General George Robertson expressed
confidence that those blocking it -- France, Germany and Belgium -- would
come around to support the plan.
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- Asked by Radio France Internationale if NATO could reach
agreement on war preparations early next week, as Robertson had predicted,
Alliot-Marie said: "That is not our view at all."
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- Wednesday's presentation by Secretary of State Colin
Powell to the U.N. Security Council outlining Washington's case against
Baghdad "only reinforced our view of the role of the U.N. inspectors.
The inspectors must...do their work."
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- "For us, today, we are in the inspection phase.
We are not in a phase of preparing for war," Alliot-Marie said.
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- Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, on a visit to India,
told students in New Delhi that Iraq had to disarm quickly.
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- "Our approach is to ask Iraq to disarm quickly,
to listen to all the pressure from around the world and take the necessary
measures so that war can be avoided," he said.
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