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| Axis of Evil |
| The ever-helpful Frenchies... |
| 2002-10-19 |
| The United States appears to have convinced Russia and China to withdraw their opposition to a military strike on Iraq. Both nations are preparing to back a new United Nations resolution that would enable the US to lead an attack on Saddam Hussein if he interfered with the work of weapons inspectors. We expected that would come — but it was harder than we expected... The shift is significant, but the US is still short of the consensus it needs - France remains opposed and can kill the resolution with a single vote. Several nations took advantage of an open debate in the UN Security Council yesterday to support the French position. Where would we be without La Belle France?... Oh. We're already there. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters after the debate he believed most nations supported France, not the US. But diplomatic sources told The Age the US had worked hard to overcome Russia's concerns, and could do the same with France's objections. Russia feared it would suffer financial loss if it backed the US, since it is Iraq's leading trading partner. Mr Saddam last month offered to sign a $US40 billion ($A72.9 billion) economic agreement with Russia, but the US appears to have convinced President Vladimir Putin that Iraq would never pay: it already owes Russia more than $US8 billion for weapons it bought during the Iraq-Iran war. The US has also told Russia it can expect some of the work rebuilding Iraq's oilfields, if President Saddam is deposed. And they can have Georgia, if they're dumb enough to want it... China is likely to follow Russia's lead when the vote is taken, leaving France as the only permanent member of the Security Council still opposed to the threat of a military strike. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |