President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that France was prepared to veto the US-backed resolution on Iraq, joining Russia in saying it would vote against giving Saddam Hussain a March 17 deadline to disarm. "No matter what the circumstances, France will vote 'no,'" Chirac said in a televised interview. (WN photo)...

France, Russia vow to block war vote

Paris/Washington |Reuters | 11-03-2003

President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that France was prepared to veto the U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq, joining Russia in saying it would vote against giving Saddam Hussain a March 17 deadline to disarm.

"No matter what the circumstances, France will vote 'no,'" Chirac said in a televised interview. "Right now we consider that there is no need for war to achieve the objective we fixed - the disarmament of Iraq," he said.

However, Chirac indicated the veto might not be needed because the resolution does not have the nine Security Council votes needed for passage. "Tonight this resolution, which carries an ultimatum ... does not have a majority of nine votes," he said.

But Chirac said that even if the United States was able to muster the necessary support, France would block it.

"When one of the five permanent members - the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France - votes no, even if there is a majority, the resolution is not adopted - that is called the right of veto," Chirac said.

U.S. President George W. Bush, meanwhile, telephoned Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and was to appeal to other nations, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Secretary of State Colin Powell called Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Mexico's foreign minister.

Security Council ambassadors began new consultations yesterday, but chances of the resolution coming to a vote today - the original U.S. target date - appeared to be receding since Washington and its allies were still far from mustering the nine votes needed.

A Japanese government official said Koizumi pledged support for the measure.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov renewed his country's determination to block the resolution. An official of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League said Pakistan has decided to abstain in the vote.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the U.S. and its allies that the legitimacy of a war to disarm Iraq without Security Council backing would be "seriously impaired".

Iraq, meanwhile, denied a U.S. report that it had moved explosives into oil fields in Kirkuk in the north of the country, dismissing the report from an official in Washington as a lie. "Such a lie does not even merit a response," an information ministry spokesman said.

A U.S. official  said earlier that Washington had "seen indications that Iraqis may be moving explosives into the oil fields in Kirkuk."

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