RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin launched a broadside yesterday against the US-led threat of unilateral military action against Iraq, while one of Russia's top generals said war in the Gulf was almost inevitable, and that oil ould be its motive.
"We cannot fail to notice the growing aggressiveness of highly influential forces in certain countries of the world which - combined with the reduced effectiveness of institutions designed to maintain global security and resolve conflicts - is a cause for concern," Mr Putin told an assembly of military officers.
The rebuke came a day after Russia's Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov said that UN arms inspectors combing Iraq for weapons of mass destruction were coming under pressure to leave the country or produce reports which could form a pretext for an attack on Baghdad that would be spearheaded by Washington.
Neither Mr Putin nor his minister named the target of their ire, but left little doubt that they had in mind those countries that support the threat of force against Baghdad, a nascent coalition led by a strident White House.
Mr Putin, who has backed a diplomatic end to the arms impasse while refusing to discount the eventual use of force, suggested that the world's fragile strategic balance could be wrecked by the sidelining of the UN - as the US has threatened to do if a divided UN Security Council refuses to sanction force against Saddam Hussein.
As Russia's top diplomats and politicians said peace was still possible,a military general said war was a near-certainty.
"As far as I can see, everything is leading to the start of war against Iraq," said Col-Gen Yuri Baluyevsky, deputy head of the military's general staff. "And the reason for this war will not be weapons of mass destruction, or even Saddam Hussein - it will be oil." He said Washington would not risk losing face by withdrawing the troops it has already amassed in the Gulf - a force approaching 200,000 men.
The Financial Times adds:
China would be unlikely to veto a second US-sponsored resolution at the United Nations that could open the way towards a possible war against Iraq, Chinese academics and foreign diplomats in Beijing said yesterday.
"China would not block it [a resolution\]," said Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University. "But \ will stand by France's side on what France says."
Lu Jianren, deputy director of the Apec and East Asian Co-operation Research Centre at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank, said: "I think China would abstain [from voting on a second resolution]. We can make use of this to improve Sino-US relations."