February 5, 2003
France maintained its opposition to war against Iraq despite Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. Security Council today, instead proposing that weapons inspections be strengthened.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin suggested tripling the number of inspectors and placing a full-time monitor in Baghdad to oversee the process. "The use of force can only be a final recourse," de Villepin told a special U.N. Security Council session attended by 12 other foreign ministers. "We must move on to a new stage and further strengthen the inspections."
Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said Powell's allegations were false and possibly fabricated. Powell's statements were "utterly unrelated to the truth," Aldouri said. "No new information was provided - mere sound recordings that cannot be ascertained as genuine." There are incorrect allegations, unnamed sources, unknown sources." He said Powell's presentation appeared aimed only at steering the international community toward support for U.S. military action against Iraq.
De Villepin said France would carefully review the evidence provided by Powell, but he emphasized that inspections were working and had resulted in major achievements. Still, he acknowledged there was more Iraq could do to cooperate with a beefed-up inspections regime to avert war. "Given the choice between military intervention and an inspections regime which is inadequate because of a failure to operate on Iraq's part, we must choose the decisive reinforcement of the means of inspection. This is today what France is proposing."
France has been the leading opponent of using military force in Iraq now and has suggested it might veto a resolution that could lead to war. Of the 15 council members, only the United States and Britain have voiced support for forcibly disarming Saddam Hussein.
De Villepin said the council should work with the chief inspectors to find ways to strengthen their mission. "Let us double, let us triple the number of inspectors. Let us open more regional offices. Let us go further than this, could we not, for example, put up, set up, a specialized body to keep under surveillance the sites and areas that have already been inspected? Let us very significantly reinforce the capacity for monitoring and collecting information in Iraq," he said. De Villepin and other foreign ministers spoke from remarks prepared before Powell's presentation. Powell, making his case that Iraq had defied all demands that it disarm, presented tape recordings, satellite photos and statements from informants today that he said constituted "irrefutable and undeniable" evidence that Saddam is concealing weapons of mass destruction. "Iraq has now placed itself in danger of serious consequences," Powell told the council. Three months after Iraq pledged that it would disarm, Powell presented his evidence in an appearance that was televised live around the world. The council members-- joined by Iraq's U.N. ambassador-- sat around a large circular table with Powell and listened attentively.
Aldouri, addressing the meeting after all 15 council members had spoken, said numerous Iraqi officials from Saddam on down had repeatedly stated that Iraq had no banned weapons programs. He reiterated that this was still the case, stating that to date, inspectors had found no evidence to prove the contrary. "Programs for weapons of mass destruction are not like an aspirin pill, easily hidden. They require huge production facilities, starting from research and development facilities, to factories, to weaponization, then deployment," he said. "Such things cannot be concealed. Inspectors have crisscrossed all of Iraq and have found none of that," he said.
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