France, Germany and Russia yesterday flatly rejected British proposals aimed at breaking a deadlock over a second UN resolution, reducing the chances of Washington getting UN backing for a war on Iraq.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Britain's idea of setting Baghdad specific tests of compliance with UN weapons inspectors was unacceptable as it was still based on the idea of setting a deadline for military action.
Noting the British proposals did not address the key issue of seeking a peaceful end to the showdown with Iraq, Villepin said that Paris rejected the "logic of ultimatums."
His Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov reiterated that Russia would vote against any UN resolution opening the way for military strikes, indicating London and Washington were far from swaying a French-German-Russian front against war.
France and Russia both hold veto power in the 15-member UN Security Council. Germany is one of 10 temporary members.
"We cannot accept the British proposals as they are based on a logic of war, on a logic of an automatic recourse to force," Villepin said in remarks broadcast by French television.
He also reiterated France's opposition to a draft resolution on Iraq presented by Washington, London and Madrid.
"The proposal from Britain, the United States and Spain sets an ultimatum, March 17. We think that is not acceptable," he said, adding that an acceptable draft resolution would offer a "reasonable" timeframe for inspections and no ultimatum.
"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," Villepin said in an earlier statement.
Bernd Muetzelburg, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's adviser on foreign and security policy, said while Berlin was not against specific disarmament demands, it could not back Britain's idea of compliance tests as they still implied authorization for war.
As Ivanov cut short a working visit to Tajikistan and headed to Moscow to examine the British proposals, Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told Russia's Interfax news agency that Moscow would block any UN resolution containing ultimatums.
"When [chief weapons inspector] Hans Blix spoke to the UN Security Council on March 7 about solving key disarmament questions, in some ways in line with the proposed British `tests,' he spoke of a timeframe of several months," he said.
"During the continuing consultations in the UN Security Council, Russia will be guided by a principal approach: we are against any resolutions with ultimatums, which automatically pave the way for war."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the staunchest supporter of Washington's push for military action, on Wednesday proposed setting Iraq six specific disarmament tests.
Council members were due to meet yesterday to consider the British proposal, aimed at winning support for a draft UN resolution authorizing a war backed by Washington, London and Madrid, but opposed by veto-wielders France, Russia and China.
Among his proposed tests, Blair suggests that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein be asked to declare on television that he will give up hidden weapons of mass destruction.
Villepin said the British did not "answer the questions that the international community is asking.
"France backs the efforts of all the countries of the Security Council who want to give Iraq a realistic timeframe to disarm effectively in line with the spirit of [UN] resolution 1441," he said in the statement issued by his ministry.
President Jacques Chirac said on Monday that France would veto any resolution paving the way for war, and Russia's Ivanov told reporters yesterday that Moscow would also vote against a resolution "directly or indirectly" authorizing military action.
Germany has consistently said it opposes war, and Muetzelburg said 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."
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