FRANCE: France and Russia yesterday threatened to veto a draft UN Security Council resolution which would provide a UN mandate for war against Iraq.
"We will not allow a resolution to pass that authorises resorting to force," the French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, said at a press conference with his Russian and German counterparts.
The development is a severe setback to US and British hopes of waging war with the approval of the Security Council.
Despite continued expressions of optimism from both London and Washington, it would be politically impossible for Paris or Moscow to back down after yesterday's statement.
Asked repeatedly whether France and Russia meant they would use their vetos, Mr de Villepin said emphatically: "There will be no second resolution that would open the path to the use of force. I can make it no clearer." Mr Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said: "There is no need for a new resolution."
In recent days, there was speculation that France hoped Moscow would veto the resolution so it would not have to.
"France has always said we would assume all our responsibilities," Mr de Villepin said. "We will not expect other members to shoulder that responsibility."
China, Mr Ivanov said, "shares our approach", raising the prospect of a triple veto. Washington had planned to call a vote on the resolution next week, but it now seems likely the US will circumvent the council rather than face humiliation.
The foreign ministers spoke after an emergency meeting to co-ordinate strategy in the run- up to a report by UN weapons inspectors to the Security Council tomorrow. That report is expected to be positive.
"The inspections are giving more and more encouraging results," the three foreign ministers said, noting that the destruction of al-Samoud 2 missiles continues, Iraq has provided information on its biological and chemical programmes and Iraqi scientists are being interviewed by weapons inspectors.
France, Russia and Germany also sought to link the Iraq crisis to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. "We are at a turning point," the three countries said.
The peaceful disarmament of Iraq could make it easier to achieve progress in the peace process, starting with the implementation of a "road map" leading to the creation of a Palestinian state, they said.
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, spoke of a "new policy in the Middle East" which would have "a positive effect on reformers in Iran".
Mr Ivanov said the use of force in Iraq "would obviously complicate the efforts" of the quartet - the US, the EU, Russia and Israel - whose attempts to resolve the Palestinian problem have stalled.
There was "a certain interconnection" between Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr Ivanov said. The ministers condemned yesterday's suicide bombing which killed at least 15 people in Israel. "We feel that war could only increase tension, the sense of injustice and violence," Mr de Villepin said.
In an implicit response to the US desire for "regime change" in Iraq, he said that while "none of us is complacent regarding the nature of the regime", if Iraq disarmed "it would change the nature of the regime".
Mr de Villepin said the UN Security Council was "the ultimate source of legitimacy" without which "we would not be able to win the peace" in the Middle East. Asked what would be the consequences of the US going to war unilaterally, Mr Ivanov noted that the UN Charter must be respected "first of all by permanent members of the Security Council".
He rejected accusations that France and Russia had sown division. "Our position cannot be blamed for a break in the Security Council; our position has not altered."
The full text of the Franco-Russian declaration may be read on the Irish Times website, ireland.com