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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Calladine who wrote (18780)	3/10/2003 8:24:03 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

Diplomatic Battle Being Waged WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - France waged a diplomatic battle with the United States on Monday to win the support of wavering nations in a U.N. vote unlikely to hold up U.S. plans to invade Iraq for long. As the United States struggled to build a greater international mandate for war, rifts yawned on the home front of its main ally Britain with the threatened resignation of a cabinet minister and a growing revolt in the ruling party. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Angola at the start of a tour of three African nations with seats on the U.N. Security Council to urge them to oppose a U.S. resolution setting a March 17 deadline for Iraq to disarm. He travels to Cameroon later in the day and then to Guinea. None of the three impoverished states has much at stake in the Iraq conflict but may be swayed by Western offers of aid, investment and trade. Angola has so far appeared to lean toward the French anti-war camp, but received U.S. assistance worth $128 million last year. Oil firms, both French and American, are interested in a country which is sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest oil producer but lies largely in ruins after a long civil war. To be approved, a resolution must win at least nine votes on the 15-member Security Council and there must be no veto from any of the five permanent members: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday the resolution had a "strong chance" of getting nine or 10 votes but he would not be surprised if France vetoed it. U.S. and British officials suggest such an outcome would be a moral victory. Iraqi authorities said they began destroying six more prohibited al-Samoud 2 missiles on Monday, after scrapping more than 40 in recent days. President Bush has dismissed its concessions as a "charade." An Iraqi daily owned by President Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, called on France, China and Russia to block the resolution and appealed for support from the three African members. "The logic of justice, equity and law should rule in the Security Council, not the bloody and feverish wishes of the adventurers sitting in Washington," Babel said. REBELLION IN BLAIR GOVERNMENT Washington has repeatedly said it needs no U.N. permission to go to war to overthrow Saddam and eliminate his suspected weapons of mass destruction. But U.N. authorization would be of huge value to governments of U.S. allies in placating public misgivings -- especially in Britain, whose contribution of 45,000 troops to a force of more than 200,000 is by far the biggest after the Pentagon's. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party faces its biggest internal rift since it came to power in 1997. International Development Secretary Clare Short, describing Blair as "reckless," said she would resign if there was war without a second U.N. resolution. More than 200 Labor members of parliament may rebel, according to British newspapers. A poll indicated most Britons would support war if it had U.N. backing but only 15 percent would do so without. Blair lobbied foreign leaders by phone on Sunday, among them Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Jiang told Blair force was not the way to resolve the crisis, China's official media reported. The showdown vote could come as soon as Tuesday. The United States so far has the declared support of only Britain and Spain, which co-sponsored the resolution, and Bulgaria. Six members seem to oppose it, instead wanting arms inspectors to have more time in Iraq. Weapons inspector Mohamed ElBaradei said Iraq had to show "a dramatic change in spirit and sincerity" to avert attack -- perhaps requiring Saddam to appear on television to offer complete cooperation in person. The London Times said British and U.S. ambassadors planned to press ElBaradei's colleague Hans Blix to reveal more details of an Iraqi unmanned "drone" aircraft, whose existence has only just been disclosed in a declassified document. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar reiterated his backing for Bush, even though he is paying the price at home and in soured relations with European Union partners. "If terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are ever brought together, which is the great threat of Iraq, I sincerely don't want to be living in a future that is on its knees, powerless, before terrorists," he said in an interview. Analysts said President Vicente Fox of Mexico, one of the Security Council "swing voters," would probably back his northern neighbor in the end despite the opposition of most of his people to attacking Iraq. The United States has a powerful diplomatic tool in the quest for U.N. votes -- money. Disappointing Washington could undermine Russia's bid for trade benefits and cool U.S.-Mexican relations, whereas Bulgaria is already cashing in commercially by its support. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said on Monday weapons inspectors should be given more time and called on the world to "block imminent war." Driving the diplomatic pace is the military desire to attack before soaring summer temperatures in the Gulf make fighting in chemical and biological protection suits especially arduous. But analysts say U.S. commanders may delay war until April 1 to draw up alternative plans for the occupation of northern Iraq because of Turkey's reluctance to be a conduit for their forces, and because April offers moonless skies for air raids. photo credit and caption: French President Jacques Chirac gestures during a television broadcast in Paris, March 10, 2003. Chirac said France would veto a United Nations resolution setting a March 17 ultimatum to Iraq, as U.S. efforts to line up more Security Council votes stalled. Photo by Reuters (Handout) kgoam810.com