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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rascal who wrote (61600)	12/13/2002 6:46:02 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi rascal; More on the subject of why Lott is in the news but Iraq isn't: Chances of U.S. Solo Strike on Iraq Fading-Canada David Ljunggren, Yahoo, December 13, 2002 Canada said on Friday the *chances of a unilateral strike by Washington on Iraq were likely smaller than ever* despite U.S. suspicions that Baghdad has not fully accounted for all of its chemical and biological weapons. Ottawa has long been one of the most strident opponents of the idea of a solo assault, insisting the United States deal with the Iraqi crisis through the United Nations (news - web sites). Foreign Minister Bill Graham told Reuters he was confident that U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) would not launch an attack despite American diplomats' unhappiness with a declaration Iraq delivered to the United Nations last weekend detailing its weapons programs. "That was frankly a fear people were expressing a while ago and I think that's less likely to happen now," Graham said during the course of a 30-minute interview. "While there always was a lot of talk in the United States about the freedom to act alone if they deemed it in their interest to do so, their actions so far have always been consistent with working through the U.N. system," he said. "And I think the fact that they've worked so long through the U.N. system now makes it probably even more likely that they will remain within the system." U.S. and U.N. diplomats said on Friday they felt Iraq's declaration failed to account for all of its chemical and biological agents and appeared to fall short of what was required under a tough Nov. 8 U.N. Security Council resolution, which demanded Iraq disarm or face severe consequences. The United States, which seeks to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), could try to use any perceived violation of the resolution as a justification for war. But Graham said this would not be easy to achieve, given that the five permanent members of the council -- also known as the P5 -- have a veto. "The possibility of an action is lessened because it would only be in circumstances where at least the P5 and a substantial number of other members were of the view that Iraq had been in material breach (of the resolution) and this constituted a threat to peace and security," he said. The Canadian government is under pressure from the left-leaning New Democrats and other activists to do more to avert a war over Iraq. New Democrat leader Alexa McDonough told reporters on Friday that Canada should launch a peace initiative with like-minded nations. But Graham rejected the idea, saying it could interfere with U.N. efforts and make a war even more likely. "I think this would in fact be feeding the fuel of a possible action because it would be in a way not keeping the Americans inside the U.N. on the one hand and on the other hand encouraging Iraq to believe it had an opportunity to flout the will of the U.N," he said. news.yahoo.com -- Carl