RUSSIA: Russia sounded a conciliatory note on the Iraq crisis yesterday, backing diplomacy over war in the Gulf while assuring an angry Washington that it wanted to heal a growing rift between the United States and its erstwhile European allies.
The White House was enraged last Friday when most United Nations Security Council members - including Russia - rejected Washington's call to threaten Baghdad with military action unless it terminated its alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ties with the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The US has vowed to act alone against Iraq if it fails to receive UN support, but Russia said yesterday that trans-Atlantic co-operation was vital. "Our aim is to preserve the unity of the UN Security Council," said Mr Alexander Yakovenko, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "Russia, France and Germany are ready to work with the United States and the Security Council to resolve the Iraq issue."
Washington's embarrassing UN rebuff last week came after Russia, France and Germany jointly pledged their backing for more arms inspections and ahead of a weekend of worldwide demonstrations against a US-led war.
However, while restating Russia's support for diplomacy, Mr Yakovenko did not rule out use of the ultimate sanction against President Saddam Hussein. "For the moment, we see sufficient prospects for pursuing the inspectors' work, especially since Friday's report to the UN Security Council showed that there is progress in the inspections," he told Russian national television. "The use of force should be the last resort."
President Vladimir Putin, who warned last week that it would be a "grave error" to attack Iraq without a UN mandate, joined the President of the European Commission on Saturday in backing the search for a political solution to the impasse. "In light of the last UN Security Council meeting on Iraq, Vladimir Putin and Romano Prodi said they were in favour of continuing the disarmament work of the inspectors in Iraq and in favour of seeking a non-military solution to the Iraq crisis," the Kremlin said in a statement after the two men had spoken by telephone.
However, while backing diplomacy, Russia has also warned Baghdad that it could change its mind on the need for military action. After Friday's Security Council session, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, commented: "Force can be resorted to, but only when all other remedies have been exhausted. We have not yet reached that point."
Most analysts in Moscow believe that, in the final analysis, Mr Putin will not jeopardise his vital relationship with President George Bush by opposing Washington's will. Rather, commentators say, he will probably acquiesce to US demands once he has received assurances that any post-war regime will honour the huge oil deals signed by Russian firms in Iraq and that the $8 billion debt owed by Baghdad to Moscow will be repaid.
Russia is also reportedly seeking assurances that Western oil firms would not flood the world market with Iraqi crude oil and depress prices, which have recently hit two-year highs, bolstering Moscow's coffers.
Reuters adds: President Jacques Chirac yesterday repeated France's view that UN inspectors should be given more time and resources to ensure the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. However, the use of force would be an option if that failed.
"We have to give the inspectors time," Mr Chirac told Time magazine in an interview. "And probably - and this is France's view - we have to reinforce their capacities, especially those of aerial surveillance. For the moment, nothing allows us to say inspections don't work."
Mr Chirac reportedly said it was "probable" that Iraq did have some non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
Asked what evidence could justify war on Iraq, Mr Chirac said: "It's up to the inspectors to decide. It's up to them to come before the Security Council and say: 'We won. Its over. There are no more weapons of mass destruction'; or: 'It's impossible for us to fulfil our mission' . . . At that point, the Security Council would have to discuss this report and decide what to do. In that case, France would naturally exclude no option . . . France is not a pacifist country."