Global Policy Forum

By Terence Neilan

Sharp opposition, both from Europe and Iraq, was voiced today to a new British proposal setting out six ways for Saddam Hussein to prove his commitment to disarmament and avoid an invasion. In Paris, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said the plan, which would give United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq a short extension, perhaps to March 24, did not address the key issue of seeking a peaceful end to the showdown with Iraq. Security Council members are scheduled to meet today to consider the proposal, which is intended to win support for a draft resolution authorizing war against Baghdad.

Mr. de Villepin said France rejected the "logic of ultimatums," and added in a statement: "It's not a question of giving Iraq a few more days before committing to using force. It's about making resolute progress towards peaceful disarmament, as mapped out by inspections that offer a credible alternative to war." The Russian foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, repeated Russia's previously announced intention to veto any resolution at the Security Council that opened the way for military action. Germany, one of 10 temporary members of the 15-member Council, has taken a consistent position against war.

Today Bernd Muetzelburg, Chancellor Gerhard Schrí¶der's adviser on foreign and security policy, said that while Germany was not against specific disarmament, Britain's new proposals did not offer a significant compromise from the original draft resolution. "The British proposal is not a real compromise proposal," he said. "The problem with the British proposal is that it still contains the same mechanics as the original formulation that is contained in the draft American-British-Spanish resolution."

In an interview today with the Al-Jazeera satellite television station, Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, rejected the British proposal as "an aggressive plan for war. Asked whether Baghdad was willing to discuss the British proposals, Reuters reported, Mr. Sabri said, "It is not up for discussion, even by other states at the Security Council." Mr. Sabri said the proposals sought to "personalize" the rift between Iraq and the United States and Britain by demanding disarmament moves from Saddam Hussein directly. One of the six terms proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain is for Mr. Hussein to admit on television that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he will give them up.

"It is a dressing up of a rejected proposal, an aggressive plan for war," Mr. Sabri told reporters in Baghdad, Reuters said. "It polishes up a resolution rejected by the vast majority of the Security Council." "The United Nations does not deal with individuals, it deals with states," Mr. Sabri said later in the television interview.

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