WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, 7 September — US President George W. Bush yesterday turned to the leaders of France, China and Russia to press his case for military action to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But he made scant visible progress in changing the minds of the three veto holders on the United Nations Security Council who are skeptical of a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.
The phone calls, totaling a combined 30 minutes, were placed from the Oval Office, a day before Bush’s war council at Camp David with his staunchest European ally, Tony Blair. Their aim was to pave the way for some sort of Security Council blessing for an attack — an effort which a reluctant White House now acknowledges it has no choice but to make, even if it fails. But the public reactions from Paris, Moscow and Beijing afterward ranged from the lukewarm to the downright chilly.
An Elysee Palace spokeswoman reiterated that Bush had not persuaded President Jacques Chirac to alter his long-standing view that any military action against Baghdad required a formal go ahead from the Security Council. The Chinese government gave no details of Bush’s conversation with President Jiang Zemin.
President Vladimir Putin brushed aside a joint charm offensive launched by Bush and Blair, dismissing their arguments for a military assault on Iraq. The Kremlin said Bush and Blair had called Putin within minutes of each other as they pressed on with their campaign to win international support for a controversial strike to unseat Saddam’s regime in Baghdad. The Kremlin announced that Putin said no to both of them.
The message highlights tensions emerging in Moscow’s decision to join the US-led anti-terror alliance following the Sept. 11 strikes on the United States, with confusion reigning in Russian military circles over what that partnership might actually mean. Russia, which has signed major economic agreements with Baghdad, was opposed to military action to achieve “regime change” in Iraq.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa set out yesterday on a tour of Europe and the United States to lay out the case against a US war on Iraq that all Arab states rejected, including Washington’s allies in the Gulf. “Threats and campaigns against different Arab states, and above all the increasing threats of military action against Iraq, will be on top of (Moussa’s) agenda,” Arab League spokesman Hisham Yussef said in Cairo.
Canada also said its troops would not join a US attack on Iraq if Washington failed to provide enough justification. Foreign Minister Bill Graham also told reporters that if Washington did launch a unilateral pre-emptive strike it could set a very dangerous precedent for the concept of international diplomacy, a cornerstone of Canadian foreign policy. (The Independent)
