France is working on a two-stage plan that could lead to United Nations authorization of military force against Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac said in an interview in The New York Times.
Chirac told the daily that under the French proposal, a Security Council resolution would give Iraq a three-week deadline for admitting United Nations weapons inspectors "without restrictions or preconditions".
If Iraqi President Saddam Hussein says no to their return, the French leader said, a second resolution should be passed on whether to use military force.
Chirac said his country would work on drafting this second resolution. He did not commit France to providing combat troops. He called Saddam a leader who "is especially dangerous to his own people".
"I don't need to tell you that I condemn the regime in Iraq, naturally, for all the reasons we know, for all the dangers that it puts on the region and the tragedy it constitutes for the Iraqi people who are held hostage by it," he told the U.S. newspaper.
But Chirac stressed that while he would like to see a new regime in Baghdad, any attempt to topple Saddam without the backing of a Security Council resolution would create chaos in global affairs. Chirac termed Bush administration doctrine of pre-emptive military action in its fight against terrorism as "extraordinarily dangerous".
On the issue of the Iraqi leader's removal, the French President said: "I do wish for it, naturally. But a few principles and a little order are needed to run the affairs of the world." "As soon as one nation claims the right to take preventive action, other countries will naturally do the same," Chirac said.
He continued: "What would you say in the entirely hypothetical event that China wanted to take pre-emptive action against Taiwan, saying that Taiwan was a threat to it? "How would the Americans, the Europeans and others react? Or what if India decided to take preventive action against Pakistan, or vice versa?" Chirac noted. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
