FRANCE: The French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, delivered a forceful message to Washington yesterday when he repeated six times in half an hour that "the majority of the international community" wants to see the Iraq crisis revolved in a peaceful fashion.
Mr de Villepin appealed by name to the British and Spanish Prime Ministers, Mr Tony Blair and Mr Jose Maria Aznar, "even as they meet today in Madrid, to be faithful to the declaration that was adopted unanimously in Brussels on February 17th . . . saying we would give the necessary time and means to inspections."
Mr de Villepin said Iraq's reluctant agreement to dismantle about 100 Al-Samoud 2 missiles strengthened France's argument.
There were opposing logics at work, the French Minister said. "On the one hand, a logic of mobilisation and military intervention, which is what we see in the US. On the other, a logic of peace, which works through successful inspections."
France "took note" of Iraq's decision to destroy the missiles, as demanded by UN weapons inspectors, Mr de Villepin continued.
"This is an important step in the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. It confirms that inspections give results. The choice of France is that of the majority of the international community and is today strengthened . . . I want to mark our determination to carry the inspectors through to their completion."
Because there are other proliferation crises - in particular North Korea - Mr de Villepin said it was "indispensable to build an efficient tool" to resolve them by peaceful means.
Referring to the pending US-British-Spanish draft resolution which would authorise war against Iraq, Mr de Villepin said: "Today, for France, a second resolution is premature. I remind that it was foreseen by the United Nations only in the event of an impasse. This is not the case today. There is therefore no reason to abandon the path of the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. That is the conviction of a large majority of the international community and of the security council, as the meeting held [on Thursday\] in New York has just shown."
The majority opposes the resolution, Mr de Villepin reiterated, citing the Russian foreign minister, Mr Igor Ivanov's, threat to use his country's veto. After appealing to Mr Blair and Mr Aznar he said: "Europe has a great responsibility on her shoulders; on Europe, on each of her members, depends the fate of war and peace."
Mr de Villepin spoke at a press conference with the Greek foreign minister, Mr George Papandreou. Greece holds the EU presidency and Mr Papandreou had dined with the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, the previous evening. "Mr Powell told me that war was not inevitable," he recounted. But when a journalist asked how Mr Powell thought war could be avoided, Mr Papandreou did not answer the question.
Both ministers reacted sceptically to President Bush's claim this week that a war would "re-shape" the Middle East by bringing democracy to the region. "As an old country of Europe with an ancient tradition in democracy of course we are in favour of democracy," Mr Papandreou said.
"The question is how one gets there . . . Democracies cannot be imposed; they must be nurtured."
Mr de Villepin said it was important "to remain within the logic of UN resolution 1441, which made the disarmament of Iraq the objective of the international community."
He too wanted peace and democracy for the Middle East.
