Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal held talks with French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday and insisted that the United Nations (UN) be involved in any attempt to resolve the crisis over Iraq.
"Our positions are very close. We both believe that a solution must come by means of the UN, and of course Iraq must implement UN resolutions," the prince said.
"Iraq is an important country in the region and the fear linked to any military action is that the territorial integrity of Iraq would suffer," he conveyed, according to AFP. "This is not against the policy of the United States because they affirm at every opportunity that they are anxious to preserve Iraq's territorial integrity," he said.
The Saudi official was passing through the French capital en route to the UN General Assembly in New York.
Chirac's spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna, meanwhile, reiterated the French president's view - expressed in an interview with the New York Times earlier this week- that Baghdad should be given a last chance to accept UN weapons inspectors. Chirac "underlined that it is essential the inspectors go back to Iraq with no preconditions, and that the international community should remind Iraq of this one more time," she said.
"If that country still refuses to accept them, then whatever happens it will be up to the UN Security Council to decide what measures to take," she further said. (Albawaba.com)
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