> From: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 11:47:45 EST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: AF Digest 2/22:  52 African Leaders Endorse French Stance Toward
> Iraq
>
> washingtonpost.com
> Chirac Fortifies Antiwar Caucus
> 52 African Leaders Endorse French Stance Toward Iraq
>
> By Glenn Frankel
> Washington Post Foreign Service
> Saturday, February 22, 2003; Page A19
>
>
>
> LONDON, Feb. 21 -- French President Jacques Chirac emerged today from a
> summit of 52 African countries -- including three that hold seats on the
> U.N. Security Council -- with a unanimous endorsement of France's
> opposition
> to U.S.-led military action against Iraq.
>
> "There is an alternative to war," said a summit statement issued in Paris
> Thursday night and reaffirmed by Chirac at a news conference this morning.
> "The use of force, which entails serious risks of destabilization for the
> region, for Africa and the world, should only be a last resort," the
> statement said.
>
> Analysts said the statement signaled France's determination to forge and
> hold together a majority in the 15-member Security Council to block U.S.
> and
> British efforts to pass a new resolution that could be used as an
> endorsement for war.
>
> "The French are not sitting back and passively leaving the initiative to
> the
> United States and Britain," said Steven Everts, research fellow at the
> Center for European Reform, a research organization in London. "They are
> proactive and working to solidify their support, and they're very good at
> this kind of diplomatic three-dimensional chess game."
>
> Chirac has said repeatedly that he sees no need for a second U.N.
> resolution
> to build on one passed in November, and he has indicated that France would
> use its veto power against such an effort. At the same time, his government
> has worked to line up enough votes in the council to defeat such a
> resolution, which would make a French veto unnecessary. Passage of a
> resolution requires nine votes.
>
> It was unclear today whether Chirac's strategy was aimed solely at turning
> back a new U.S.-British resolution, or whether France and other nations
> opposed to military action would propose their own resolution next week
> about disarming Iraq.
>
> Analysts said such a resolution could be based on an initiative that France
> and Germany broached two weeks ago that would double or triple the number
> of
> U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq, intensify monitoring of Iraqi territory by
> using French, German and Russian aircraft along with U.S. U-2 spy planes,
> and put in place a "specialized corps" of armed U.N. forces to guard sites
> already inspected.
>
> Of the Security Council's five permanent, veto-holding members, the United
> States and Britain favor a tough new resolution, while France, Russia and
> China want inspections to continue.
>
> Countries that hold the council's 10 rotating seats, which wield no veto,
> are also split; only Spain and Bulgaria are committed to supporting the
> United States and Britain. Syria and Germany are firmly opposed. That
> leaves
> the three African members -- Angola, Cameroon and Guinea -- plus Mexico,
> Chile and Pakistan, as potentially up for grabs.
>
> The declaration from the Paris summit appears to place the African nations
> in the antiwar camp. The summit, an annual convocation, also focused on the
> civil war in Ivory Coast and repression in Zimbabwe under President Robert
> Mugabe.
>
> In the wake of opinion polls in Britain and throughout Europe that reflect
> widespread opposition to military action in Iraq without U.N. support,
> Prime
> Minister Tony Blair of Britain has pressed for a resolution that would
> declare Iraq in material breach of U.N. demands for disarmament. British
> officials have said they hope to present a new resolution sometime in the
> next few weeks.
>
> Blair was in Rome today to meet with Pope John Paul II, who has expressed
> strong opposition to military action, and to lend support to Italy's prime
> minister, Silvio Berlusconi. The Italian leader has been a strong advocate
> of military action but, like Blair, has been under mounting political
> pressure to allow the weapons inspectors more time.
>
> Berlusconi's four-party governing coalition has agreed to let the United
> States use Italian air space, transport facilities and military bases for
> an
> invasion, but has said it wants a second U.N. resolution before war begins.
>
> Responding to the French-African statement, State Department officials said
> that Walter H. Kansteiner, assistant secretary of state for African
> affairs,
> met Thursday with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and would
> meet
> in coming days with senior officials of the other two African Security
> Council members.
>
> But Chirac, who has become the de facto spokesman of antiwar forces in
> Europe and around the world, appeared to be one step ahead of his U.S. and
> British counterparts. He said at today's news conference that he was
> confident he could hold together a coalition opposed to war.
>
> "As things stand today, everything points to the need for [disarmament] to
> be achieved through peaceful means . . . and not by a military route,"
> Chirac said.
>
> Analysts said Chirac was forging an antiwar coalition with such success
> that
> it would be difficult for him to back down at a later stage and find some
> compromise with the United States and Britain. Divisions have been
> solidified by heated rhetoric of recent days: Chirac has told East European
> nations supporting the U.S. position to "keep quiet," while Secretary of
> State Colin L. Powell told a French radio interviewer that "certain
> countries are afraid of upholding their responsibility."
>
> "All of the scenarios I can outline right now have various shades of
> black,"
> said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research
> in Paris. He said a French veto or a U.S. decision to initiate military
> action without U.N. approval would be equally damaging for trans-Atlantic
> relations. "There seems to be an abyss of mutual misunderstanding."
> ---------------------
> This posting is provided without permission of the copyright owner for
> purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship, and research under the "Fair
> Use" provisions of U.S.Government copyright laws and it may not be
> distributed further without permission of the copyright owner.  The sender
> does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the message, which is the
> sole responsibility of the copyright .
>
>
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~