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Europeans make counter-proposalGermany, France, Russia offer alternative to war
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Germany, France and Russia offered a counter-proposal to the draft resolution put forward Monday by the United States, Britain and Spain at the U.N. Security Council condemning Iraq's failure to disarm. Their counter-proposal, presented as a memorandum rather than a rival draft resolution, endorses continuing inspections as an alternative to war, and calls for beefed-up inspection teams and increased aerial surveillance of Iraq. (Full text) While declaring that inspections cannot continue indefinitely, the memorandum states "the military option should only be a last resort." But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said inspectors would only "get run around" if given more time. "The question is, will Saddam Hussein disarm?" Fleischer said. "He has shown the world he has not and will not." The U.S.-backed resolution declares that Iraq "has failed to take the final opportunity" to disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction but does not include a deadline or an explicit threat of military force. The resolution repeats Resolution 1441's warning of "serious consequences" if Baghdad refuses to disarm. (Full story) Germany, France and Russia's rival initiative calls for "full and effective disarmament" of Iraq to be achieved "peacefully through the inspection regime." "Disarmament should be done in a peaceful way," French President Jacques Chirac said after meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin. "War is always the worst of solutions. It's always a failure. ... Everything should be done to avoid it." Chirac said the proposal "sets deadlines for disarmament, program by program." It also calls for: • Increasing and diversifying the inspectors' staffing and expertise • Establishing mobile units designed in particular to check on trucks • Completing the new system of aerial surveillance and processing its data "We see no reason in this context to change our logic, which is a logic of peace, and to switch to a logic of war," Chirac told reporters at a briefing attended by Schroeder. Schroeder, who won re-election last year on an anti-war platform, urged the world last week to "give peace a chance and avoid war." The continuing intransigence from Europe is certain to anger the Bush administration. Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld upset France and Germany by saying they were not representative of a "New Europe" that includes former Soviet bloc countries. "You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe," Rumsfeld said. Responding to Rumsfeld's comment, Schroeder said maybe "good old Europe" has an "awareness of what war really means. "Perhaps against that background, it is easier for us to understand exactly what it is the French and the Germans, in their hope and their expectation, what has united us in attempting to achieve the disarmament of Iraq by peaceful means," Schroeder said. The United States needs support from at least nine of the 15 council members to win approval for a resolution, providing France, Russia or China do not cast a veto. Russia said Monday that the U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq would fail to get enough support. (Full story)
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