FRANCE/IRAQ: The confrontation between France, the US and Britain over military intervention in Iraq continued yesterday when French officials implied they would break the "silent procedure" initiated by the NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson, to authorise war planning. Lara Marlowe reports from Paris.
The "silent procedure" is routine, and a French rejection before 11 a.m. (Irish time) on Monday would merely force Lord Robertson to reintroduce the proposal.
Though not a crisis within the alliance, the issue exemplifies growing tension over policy on Iraq. If none of NATO's 19 members break the procedure, NATO will begin preparing for the redeployment of AWAC early-warning aircraft from the Balkans to Turkey, and the US will make plans to deploy a Patriot anti-missile shield there. Turkey is the only NATO member to share a border with Iraq.
However, France, Germany and Belgium have held up a US "shopping list" since January 15th, and no agreement was reached at a meeting in Belgium on February 6th. Lord Robertson said he believed agreement would be reached "early next week".
Yet this was contested by the French Defence Minister, Ms Michele Alliot-Marie. "That is not our view at all," she told French radio yesterday.
She said the US Secretary of State's presentation to the UN Security Council on Wednesday "only reinforced" France's belief in the work of weapons inspectors. "We are in the inspection phase; we are not in a phase of preparing for war."
French opposition to NATO planning for war was reaffirmed by Mr Bernard Valãro, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "Nothing would justify that the alliance associate itself with preparations for a possible military operation while we're continuing and strengthening inspections."
Gen Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO's integrated command in1966, but France remains a member with the power to block decisions.
French officials see the initiative in NATO as a publicity stunt intended to increase pressure for a war. "The day when Turkey is threatened, we would, of course, authorise protective measures, whether or not we're involved - they're our allies," a French source said. "But it's too early - we haven't exhausted political and diplomatic means. The AWACs could be deployed in two days."
The Turkish parliament has postponed a vote authorising the presence of thousands of US soldiers on Turkish territory until February 18th, after the Muslim feast of Bayram.
The US "shopping list" included a request for the use of military bases, airspace and refuelling facilities in NATO countries, as well as the protective measures for Turkey.
France, Germany and Belgium say that to approve the list would be tantamount to recognising the inevitability of war.
"The affirmation that diplomacy has failed is a little pessimistic," President Jacques Chirac said yesterday, contradicting the US Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld. "There is still an alternative to war. It is the responsibility of every member of the Security Council to explore it to the end," Mr Chirac said after a meeting with the Finnish Prime Minister, Mr Paavo Lipponen.
Both men said there could be no use of force without a Security Council debate.
"The rules must be respected," said Mr Chirac. "Resolution 1441 absolutely does not foresee the possibility of a country taking a particular initiative outside its framework."