.Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
Disunity on Iraq ..
risks.war, U.S. says
..France, .bolstered by we.~kend rallies,
insists on niore time for UN inspectors
By Brian Knowlton
International Herald TrIbune
. spectors, argued Sunday for expanding
WASHINGTON: President George W. .
the inspectors' mission.
"We bave to give the inSpectors
Bush's national seculjty adviser said time," he said in an interview post~d on
Sunday that war: with Iraq would be- the Time magazine Web site. "And
come difficult to avoid unless UN Se- probabl~ - and this is France's view -
curity Council members united soon we have to reinforce their capacities,
behind a tough, common approach to especially those of aerial surveillance."
Baghdad. . ., He added, "For the moment, nothing al-
1,mtFrance, its position comforted by • lows us to say inspections don't work."
global anti-warprotests, insisted that. Washington has not abandoned
United Nations inspectors be given hopes of working through the UN to
more time in Iraq. .. . obtain 11th-hour unity there, which is
They spoke as U.S. and British diplo- the strong preference of London, its
mats r~fined ,the wording of a possible staunchest ally on the issue.
new Security' Council resolution, to be "We are, in a diplomatic window
introduced as early as Tuesday, affirm- here," .Rice said, but one tbat "cannot
ing that Iraq was still patently in defi.' last very much longer." ..
ance of UN disarmament demands and But the likelihood of war seemed
invoking again a threat of "serious con- ever greater.
sequences," meaning armed attack. .A former U.S. secretary of state,
Sùch a rèsolution could not be used Lawrence Eagleburger, said Sunday
as a "delaying tactic," said Condoleezza, that war was !'95percent inevitable"; a
.Rice, the U.S. national security adviser. former U.S. director of central intelli-
But if it affirmed the earlier findings of gence, R. James Woolsey, agreed; and
Resolution 1441, that Iraqi violations so did a former supreme commander of
demanded firm action, she said, "then NATO, Wesley Clark, all speaking. in
we would find that welcome."
television interviews.
U.S. officials à1so pondered setting a Rice herself said that it was "bard to
final set of clear and specific tests of imagine the circumstances" in which
Iraqi co.operation, meas~ble within Iraq couldnow persuade the world that
the commg few weeks. Thell hope was ,it was ready to disarm.
that if Baghdad failed those tests, which ... ...i ' .
. could include the destruction of illegal The ad~ml~tratlon sou~t to ~ke
. missiles, and permission for scientists to two key pOl.nts.SundaY:~t If ~ar ISto
leave the country for interviews, UN be ~verted,lt 'YIll only be If a UnIted ~esupport
for military. actiOJlcwould grow cunty ~ouncl! leave~ Iraq no chOlc:e
to the point Where the Security Council but to dls:,-rm Imm~(ha~ely;and that If
could pass a new resolution. . th~ Secunty Council falls to do so, and
The United States and Britain con- reJects force, the UnIted States and a
tinued 'to face strong resistance, . "coalition of the willing" will move
however, in their efforts to persuade ah~ad regardless. .
France, Germany; Russill and other Se- E:errone. kn~ws war IS a last recurity
Council members that granting sort, said RIce. But you ne~ to keep'
more time for UN inspections is point- the pressure on Saddam HusseIn. Ifthat .
,less. ., pressure rele~es, I can ~ssure you that
. The French foreign minister, Domin- we'r~ not gC:)lngto get to a peaceful
. ique de Villepin, said Sunday that no SOlUtIOn." . . . .
second resolution was needed so long The latest Idea for mcreas~ng such
. as inspections were showing progres~ pressure - the tes~s,.or benchmarks -
Rice strongly disagreed. "I don't under- ISsuppor~ed by Bntaln. I!Sambassador
stand how anyone can say inspections to th~ UnIted States, Chnstoph~r ~eyare
working," she said.
er, said on Al!C~TVthat an Iraqi failure
"Continuing to talk about more time to ~estroy mlS!lles banned because .of
and more time and more time is simply their ~ang~ would. be a mat~nal
going.to relieve pressures on the Iraqis ~re~c~ of UN resolutions, potentIally
to do wbat they muSt do," she said on JustIfYIngwar. .
NBC~'rv."It is time for this to end." She But his French counterpart, Ambas- .
. denied tllat any deadline bad been set. sador Jean-pavid Lavi~e, said that o~ly
.President Jacques Chirac of France, the Secunty Co,!ncil. could. dec~de
whose calls for further UN inspections whether any. IraqI ,actIon or mactIon
received new UN support after the W