Russia May Use Veto Power to Stop Iraq War
Tue March 4, 2003 11:53 AM ET
By Peter Graff
LONDON (Reuters) - Russia steered onto a collision course with the United States on Tuesday with a warning it may use its power of veto in the U.N. Security Council to block any resolution paving the way for war on Iraq.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also appealed for U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq to be allowed to set their own deadline for verifying disarmament by President Saddam Hussein.
In a BBC World Service interview during a visit to London, Ivanov insisted Moscow would not support any measure furthering the possibility of war, nor abstain in any future U.N. Security Council vote on Iraq.
"If the situation so demands, Russia will of course use its right of veto -- as an extreme measure -- to avoid the worst development of the situation," Ivanov said.
"Russia would not support any decision that would directly or indirectly lead to a war with Iraq," he added.
Ivanov said Russia, which like China, France and Germany opposes the hawkish stance of Washington and London against Saddam, would not abstain in any future U.N. vote.
"Russia is not indifferent to the future of Iraq," he said. "Russia will not abstain. It will take a particular position."
Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, Moscow sent envoys to try and persuade Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait peacefully, but ultimately backed the coalition that chased his troops out.
TIME LIMITS
Ivanov insisted unanimity in the Security Council, rather than talk of veto-wielding, was the best way forward.
"Only unanimity will provide success in the solution of the Iraqi problem," he said. "In the past Iraq used the differences in the Security Council and has managed to avoid solutions."
Ivanov called for concrete time limits to be set by U.N. inspectors, led by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei.
"We insist that Blix and ElBaradei on March 7 give a clear plan for work...and say how long it will take them," he said. "All we have asked Iraq to do so far, Iraq has carried out. Therefore, the inspectors should set out a concrete plan."
After Blix and ElBaradei's reports to the United Nations on Friday, "Russia and I think other Security Council members will speak in favor of the international inspectors continuing their inspections, on the basis of concrete plans, and taking into account concrete time limits," he said.
Ivanov said Moscow was "prepared to look positively" in principle on a Canadian proposal setting specific tests Iraq has to meet by about March 28 or face possible war.
"But we cannot set the deadlines without taking account of the inspectors," he said. "The inspectors themselves should say whether they would be able to finish by the end of March, or do they require three, four months?"
The foreign minister, who was meeting his British counterpart Jack Straw for talks later on Tuesday, said it would be a "serious mistake with serious consequences" if the United States went to war against Iraq without a second U.N. resolution.
Asked about Ivanov's tough comments, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman did not try to hide differences but said U.N. countries which unanimously agreed resolution 1441, giving Saddam a last chance to disarm, had to follow up on that.
"I don't think his words today are any great surprise," he said. "No one is pretending all 15 countries on the Security Council are in the same place on this...But countries have to confront at some point what they've signed up to."
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