France to Super Power - Peres questions France permanent status on Security Council
By The Associated Press
Former foreign minister Shimon Peres on Thursday criticized France and Germany for their opposition to a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, and questioned France's status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also criticized recent mass demonstrations around the world against a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
"Why didn't they demonstrate when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, or invaded Kuwait?" Peres told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "That was a war. It cost a million lives."
Peres also suggested another country replace France as a permanent member of the Security Council. "Why not for example, India, that represents much more of the 20th century, in terms of people, in terms of position, in terms of visions?" Peres said.
If France and Germany oppose positions backed by other European countries, they should provide alternatives proposals, Peres said.
He also questioned their support, without UN backing, for the use of force in the Balkans in 1999. "One must ask, why was it right to bomb Kosovo... without the United Nations? Is [former Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic more dangerous than Saddam Hussein?" Peres said.
Israel has not openly called for a U.S. attack on Iraq, but has made no secret of its desire to see the ouster of Saddam, whose regime fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
Speaking at the same conference Thursday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out giving up any part of Jerusalem in peace negotiations and said Israel would not accept the return of Palestinian refugees, rejecting key Palestinian demands.
He insisted that Israel is prepared to make "painful compromises" for durable peace, but would not compromise over Israel's security. He did not give details.
"I don't think there is any right to anyone to make any compromise when it comes to Jerusalem," he said. "We are guardians of Jerusalem for future generations."
Sharon categorically rejected the Palestinian claim of a "right of return" of refugees, referring to hundreds of thousands of Arabs who fled or were driven out of their homes during the two-year war that followed Israel's creation in 1948, along with their descendants, an estimated 4 million people.
"Israel will never accept that danger to occur. Never," he said. "We understand the tragedy" of the refugees, he said, but Israel has no responsibility for them because it was attacked. Accepting their return "means the destruction of Israel as [an] independent, democratic Jewish state," he said.
Sharon appealed to the U.S. Jewish leaders to help explain Israel's cause in the world. "Every Jew is an ambassador for Israel," he told them. |
