verte76
Blue Crack Addict
I knew it was a matter of time before this sort of thing happened. The people who announced the death of the U.S.-France alliance remind me a little bit of that quote attributed to Freud that "rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated".
France Calls for Suspension of Iraqi Sanctions
Updated 1:12 PM ET April 22, 2003
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In a surprise move, France on Tuesday backed an immediate suspension of U.N. sanctions against Iraq, even before U.N. weapons inspectors had certified the country had no more weapons of mass destruction.
But France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the U.N. oil-for-food program, which collects Iraq's oil revenues, should be kept under U.N. control for the time being but adjusted to Iraq's current needs.
In the main, he said, financial and trade sanctions needed to be suspended to enable the country to get back on its feet.
De la Sabliere's position, disclosed in closed Security Council consultations and then told to reporters, came closer to that of the United States than Russia. Both France and Russia had opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"We could suspend the sanctions and adjust the oil-for-food (program) with an idea of its phasing out," de la Sabliere said. A final lifting of sanctions would depend on a report by weapons inspectors, he added.
The council met to hear a report from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who said his teams were ready to return to Iraq within two weeks, if necessary, to verify any remaining dangerous weapons the U.S. military has found.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Sergei Lavrov made it clear that Security Council resolutions tie the lifting or suspension of sanctions to verification by inspectors that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, known by diplomats as WMDs.
"We are not at all opposing lifting of sanctions. What we are insisting on is that Security Council resolutions must be implemented," Lavrov told reporters.
"We all want to know that there are no WMDs in Iraq, and the only way to verify it is to have inspectors in Iraq and to see for themselves and to report back to the Security Council. As soon as they deliver their report the sanctions could be lifted," he said.
But the United States is cool to Blix, who will retire on June 1, and instead is recruiting former U.N. inspectors from the United States, Britain and Australia to verify any discovery of banned weapons.
The Bush administration argues the sanctions system, first imposed after Iraq's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, was set up to restrain a government that no longer exists.
France Calls for Suspension of Iraqi Sanctions
Updated 1:12 PM ET April 22, 2003
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - In a surprise move, France on Tuesday backed an immediate suspension of U.N. sanctions against Iraq, even before U.N. weapons inspectors had certified the country had no more weapons of mass destruction.
But France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the U.N. oil-for-food program, which collects Iraq's oil revenues, should be kept under U.N. control for the time being but adjusted to Iraq's current needs.
In the main, he said, financial and trade sanctions needed to be suspended to enable the country to get back on its feet.
De la Sabliere's position, disclosed in closed Security Council consultations and then told to reporters, came closer to that of the United States than Russia. Both France and Russia had opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"We could suspend the sanctions and adjust the oil-for-food (program) with an idea of its phasing out," de la Sabliere said. A final lifting of sanctions would depend on a report by weapons inspectors, he added.
The council met to hear a report from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who said his teams were ready to return to Iraq within two weeks, if necessary, to verify any remaining dangerous weapons the U.S. military has found.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Sergei Lavrov made it clear that Security Council resolutions tie the lifting or suspension of sanctions to verification by inspectors that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, known by diplomats as WMDs.
"We are not at all opposing lifting of sanctions. What we are insisting on is that Security Council resolutions must be implemented," Lavrov told reporters.
"We all want to know that there are no WMDs in Iraq, and the only way to verify it is to have inspectors in Iraq and to see for themselves and to report back to the Security Council. As soon as they deliver their report the sanctions could be lifted," he said.
But the United States is cool to Blix, who will retire on June 1, and instead is recruiting former U.N. inspectors from the United States, Britain and Australia to verify any discovery of banned weapons.
The Bush administration argues the sanctions system, first imposed after Iraq's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, was set up to restrain a government that no longer exists.
