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Iraq
Chirac spells it out: no ultimatum
2003-03-15
Jacques Chirac yesterday removed any lingering doubts about France's intentions on Iraq, confirming to Tony Blair in a brief phone call that France was willing to seek a compromise on disarming Saddam Hussein but would not accept any UN resolution that set an ultimatum.
"As long as we do it my way, Tony, I'm willing to work with you."
In Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder also said Germany was convinced the Iraq crisis could still be resolved by peaceful means, telling parliament that UN weapons inspections could produce "sustainable and verifiable disarmament". But soon after he spoke his foreign ministry warned Germans "urgently" against trips to Iraq. Its advice represented a step up from a warning that made no mention of urgency 11 days earlier.
"We can disarm Saddam peacefully, but until we do you'd better not travel there." Sure, that's consistent.
The French and British leaders' 10-minute conversation did little to ease rising tensions over Mr Chirac's pledge to veto any new resolution that gives the green light to war. Mr Chirac told Mr Blair that France was ready to shorten the 120-day timetable for arms inspections it had earlier proposed, his spokeswoman said. But he added that France wanted any security council agreement on Iraqi disarmament to continue "in the logic of resolution 1441".
Funny, that's what we were trying to do.
In London a Downing Street spokesman reported that Mr Chirac had said he was "willing to look at the [disarmament tests for Iraq] that the UK had put down in the United Nations, but insisted there were no circumstances in which France would countenance a new resolution that authorised or implied military action".
The grating thing is that you know Chirac knows how inconsistent this is.
In an address to parliament, Mr Schröder said: "We must have the courage to flee fight for peace as long as there is a scrap of hope that a war can be avoided. Together with our French weasels friends, with Russia and China and the majority of the security council, we are more than ever deluded convinced that Iraq's disarmament can and must be achieved by peaceful means." The chancellor said recent reports by the accomplices UN's weapons inspectors showed Iraq was cooperating "better and more actively". His stance was attacked by Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian conservative who narrowly failed to oust him from office at last year's general election, and by Angela Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democrats outside Bavaria, who said: "Our opponent is not the American president, our opponent is Saddam Hussein. We would never have ruled out the military option as a last resort."
Just have to wonder how a Chanceller Stoiber would have handled this. Would we have a German division joining us, the Brits and the Aussies?
Probably not, but we wouldn't have this mess, either. There would be a token German force, probably NBC cleanup, and the expectation of a piece of the action when Sammy was gone. I think they'll still expect a piece of the action, and my fear is that we'll be dumb enough to let that happen...
Posted by:Steve White

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