Straw attacks proposal to avert Iraq war

By Ewen MacAskill, Jon Henley in Paris and Helena Smith in Nicosia, The Guardian (London), Tuesday 11 February 2003

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, will underline Britain’s isolation in Europe today by rejecting a joint call by France, Russia and Germany to avoid war by sending more weapons inspectors to Iraq.

Mr Straw, in a speech in London, will dismiss the plan, formalised in a declaration in Paris last night. France wants to treble the number of inspectors, but the foreign secretary will deride the idea by saying that even a thousandfold increase would fail to guarantee Iraqi disarmament.

His comments come less than 24 hours after Iraq bowed to one of the key demands of the international community—agreeing to the overflight of U-2 spyplanes. Both the White House and the Foreign Office dismissed the concession as unsurprising and insufficient.

By forging a formal alliance, France, Germany and Russia—all members of the security council, two of whom can veto any UN resolution—have greatly strengthened the anti-war campaign. Their declaration proposed the continuation of inspections and a substantial reinforcement of their human and technical capacities ... in liaison with the inspectors.

In an ill-concealed dig at recent undiplomatic remarks by increasingly frustrated US officials, the declaration requested that discussions might continue in the spirit of friendship and respect that characterises our relations with the United States.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, said: Nothing today justifies a war. This region really does not need another war.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said the inspectors were making progress. Iraq is offering more information and has shown a greater wish and willingness to cooperate, he said, adding that Russia was ready to contribute equipment and aviation to any effort to bolster the inspections.

The hardening of the anti-war forces will make it near-impossible for the US and Britain to push this weekend for a second UN resolution declaring Iraq to be in material breach of its disarmament obligations and to authorise war. Without a UN mandate, Tony Blair will have difficulty in carrying his cabinet and party with him into war. He has said that he is aware the Iraq crisis is a threat to his premiership.

Mr Straw’s speech will underline the extent to which Britain has parted company with mainstream Europe over Iraq. Challenging the logic of the Franco-Russo-German position, he will say: If Saddam bows to the UN’s demands and co-operates promptly, what is the need for greater numbers of inspectors? If he maintains his refusal to cooperate, how will higher numbers help? Lethal viruses can be produced within an area the size of the average living room.

In the absence of Iraqi cooperation, even a thousandfold increase in the UN monitoring, verification and inspection commission’s capabilities will not allow us to establish with any degree of confidence that Iraq has disarmed.

The US and British position is that the policy of containment of Iraq employed by the international community since the Gulf war in 1991 is redundant and the French, German and Russian call for an increase in inspectors would mark a return to containment.

In a further setback to Washington and London yesterday, France, Germany and Belgium joined forces to block a US-led move to get Nato approval to bolster Turkey’s defences ahead of any war against Iraq.

Two emergency meetings at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters failed to resolve the issue, which is to be discussed by ambassadors meeting again today.

Nicholas Burns, the US envoy, warned that Nato’s credibility was now at stake. Diplomats said Mr Chirac was largely to blame for one of the worst crises in Nato’s 54-year history.

The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, stressed the US and willing allies would go ahead with planning to help Turkey outside of Nato if necessary.

And in another sign of concern about the Iraq crisis, the EU is to hold an emergency summit next week to discuss the widening rift in European-US relations.

The divisions will come to a head on Friday in the aftermath of the report to the security council by the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed El Baradei, who said yesterday that Iraq has four days to act on promises to fully disarm with actual progress that will demonstrate the change of environment necessary to avert war.

Although the inspectors witnessed the beginning of a change of heart during their weekend visit to Baghdad, concrete measures must now be taken to assure the world that Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction, he said.

With certain capitals showing growing impatience with Iraq, several steps should be evident by Friday, Mr El Baradei warned.

Revealing the measures, Mr El Baradei said full and active Iraqi cooperation was vital if he and Mr Blix were to report the sort of progress that could convince the council to prolong inspections—and possibly defuse the crisis.

As well as overflights by the U-2s and a promise yesterday to bring in legislation banning weapons of mass destruction, the inspectors are seeking a verbal commitment by the Iraqi authorities to permit further unsupervised interviews of Iraqi scientists. It is hoped that some interviews will be carried out abroad.

Iraq should also produce additional contemporaneous documentation such as invoices, inventories and government orders to prove the destruction of its anthrax and VX nerve gas. Such evidence would enable the inspectors to close files that have been outstanding for the past 12 years.