Inspectors need to be sure, says French envoy

Date: 06/03/03

By David Cronin

FRANCE'S ambassador to NATO believes there are no weapons of mass destruction left in Iraq - but that UN inspectors should be given more time to search, just in case Saddam Hussein has kept some in secret locations.

Speaking in Brussels, Benoît d'Aboville said France "had accepted without great joy" the decision by NATO's defence planning committee on 19 February to provide Turkey with the protection of AWACS surveillance aircraft and Patriot missile systems.

France does not have a seat on the committee - the only NATO member not to do so - because it withdrew from the Alliance's military structures in 1966.

D'Aboville, who was speaking at a conference organised by the Institut Européen Des Relations Internationales and Bureau D'Information De Bruxelles Du Parlement Européen, also queried why Iraq was being singled out over alleged weapons of mass destruction. He pointed out that Pakistan, India and North Korea either have, or are committed to, developing nuclear capabilities.

"We don't say anything to India because it is too big a country," he remarked.

"And North Korea is somewhere we can hit easily because there are 35,000 US troops near the demilitarised line [dividing the Korean peninsula]."

NATO Director of Press and Information Jamie Shea argued that EU states seeking to avert war could prove more influential on the world stage if they bridge the so-called capabilities gap between Europe and the US in terms of military equipment.

He quoted Theodore Roosevelt, the early 20th century US president: "Speak softly but carry a big stick.

"If the Europeans were to have a big stick, they would have more impact," added Shea.

That view was echoed by Elmar Brok, chairman of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.

Brok described the EU's inability to project unity on Iraq as "mostly our own fault".

"We are not able to deliver with one voice and, because we do not have sufficient military force, we are not taken seriously enough," the German Christian Democrat added.

France, together with Germany and Russia, issued a joint statement in Paris yesterday (5 March) declaring that they will not accept a new resolution which authorises the use of force.

However, the three foreign ministers, Dominique de Villepin, Joschka Fischer and Igor Ivanov, avoided any specific mention of the word "veto".

France's ambassador to NATO believes there are no weapons of mass destruction left in Iraq - but that UN inspectors should be given more time to search, just in case Saddam Hussein has kept some in secret locations.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=50&Body=Iraq&Body1=inspect http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=50&Body=Iraq&Body1=inspect

---