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Tuesday,
March 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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France
refuses to budge
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Iraqi
minister sends peace letter to Bush USA tells its diplomats
to leave Israel, Syria, Kuwait Indians
leave Baghdad Anti-aircraft
missile ‘soon’ |
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Patten named new Oxford Chancellor
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France
refuses to
budge Paris, March 17 Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, giving France’s first reaction to US President George Bush’s warning that today would be “a moment of truth for the world,” indicated Paris would veto any UN resolution meant to trigger a war. Britain promptly accused France of taking pressure off Iraqi President Saddam Hussein just when it was needed most. “France cannot accept the resolution that is on the table in New York...which poses an ultimatum and which envisages an automatic use of force,” Mr Villepin told Europe 1 Radio. “France has said what it would do,’’ he said, referring to Mr Chirac’s threat to exercise France’s right of veto as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. “What is paradoxical is that we are moving towards a war while it is possible today to disarm Iraq peacefully. A military calendar is being imposed on the international community.” British Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien told BBC Radio that Paris had frustrated the drive to disarm Iraq. “The damage done by this threat of a French veto to the whole diplomatic process has been enormous,” he said. Mr Villepin’s comments followed yesterday’s summit among US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar where the three agreed to one final bid to rally support for an attack on Iraq. In an interview taped before the Azores summit finished, Mr Chirac told US television he could shorten the deadline for continued arms inspections from 120 days to 30 days but could not allow a pro-war resolution to pass in the Security Council. Mr Villepin said a pro-war resolution could not garner the nine votes needed in the 15-member Security Council, a view echoed by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov in Moscow.
Mr Villepin noted France would allow US and British military planes to overfly French territory and “would be at their sides to show solidarity” if their soldiers faced biological or chemical weapons in the fight against Iraq. Bhajan File-Strike Berlin:
Germany insisted today that it would not support any UN resolution authorising war on Iraq and called for a last-ditch push for peace, even as military action appeared inevitable. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Germany “cannot and will not support any resolution legitimising war.” He said the past few weeks had shown the success of UN weapons inspections in Iraq and called for them to be given more time. It was his first public reaction to warning by US President George W. Bush that the world faced “a moment of truth” on Monday.
Reuters, AFP |
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Iraqi minister
sends peace letter to Bush Baghdad, March 17 Shakra called on Bush not to “give in to the logic of war and to focus all US capabilities to serve humanity,” INA said. The news of the letter, the first such move by an Iraqi minister, came as the USA was taking part in a three-way summit in the Azores that could lead to imminent military action against Baghdad. “Going to war is a failure for democracy, development and common sense and a defeat for humanity,” the minister said in his letter. “Iraq has always rejected violence and has redoubled efforts in this regard after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the USA,” he said.
AFP |
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USA tells
its diplomats to leave Israel, Syria, Kuwait
Washington, March 17 In separate announcements released just hours after the leaders of the USA, Britain and Spain gave the UN Security Council a one-day deadline to act to disarm Iraq, the State Department said it was ordering the diplomats to leave for security reasons. Using identical language in each, the department said it had taken the step “as a result of a deteriorating security situation in the region” and because of fears of anti-US attacks with chemical or biological weapons. Similar measures were taken in the days leading up to the 1991 Gulf war during which Iraq launched Scud missiles into Israel and Saudi Arabia.
AFP |
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Indians
leave Baghdad Abu Dhabi, March 17 Indian Ambassador
B. B. Tyagi reached Amman by road late last night. "There are no Indian staff now in the Indian embassy in Baghdad. Except for some 12 Indian businessmen from the private sector, the rest have left the country" Mr Tyagi said on the phone from Amman. "Some of them may have left yesterday and the rest were to leave soon. Fifteen Indian students studying Arabic at Saddam University had also left, except for one who was undecided", he said. The Indians there do not need any help from the embassy and have documents to leave at any time, Mr
Tyagi, who along with his First Secretary was staying in a hotel in Amman, said. Indian ambassador in Jordan M. Venkataraman said his embassy would be working as usual. PTI |
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Anti-aircraft missile ‘soon’ Abu Dhabi, March 17 “We are in the final stages of developing an anti-aircraft missile,’’ according to Capt
S. K. Banerjee (retd), Deputy-General Manager of the Hyderabad-based Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), which is one of the three Indian companies participating in the ongoing International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) here. Talking to reporters, Captain Banerjee said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) decided to develop an indigenous anti-aircraft missile as most of the Russian missiles with the Indian armed forces were outdated. “The missile is being developed by the DRDO... We will be engaged in its production. What we plan to manufacture is a 25 km short-range missile,’’ he added. For a long-range missile capable of hitting targets up to 60 km, the BDL has proposed joint production with a French company. “We have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the MBDA of France for the co-production of a long-range anti-aircraft missile,’’ the official said. Asked if the development of the anti-aircraft missile would not amount to defying international missile control regimes, Captain Banerjee shot back: “We are not violating any international norm... We are just trying to become self-sufficient in the defence of the nation.” He said India could today boast of a perfect state-of-the-art technology, which could match the best in the world in the field of anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) and long range surface-to-surface missiles.
UNI |
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Patten named new Oxford Chancellor London, March 17 “It would be an honour and pleasure to serve,” said Mr Patten who comfortably fought off two leading lawyers and a comedienne to land the unpaid job-for-life. More than 8,000 Oxford graduates cast their votes to find a replacement after the death of centrist politician Roy Jenkins. In the final round, Mr Patten received more than half of the votes. The name of one of Oxford’s most famous students — former U.S. President Bill Clinton — was bandied about as a possible candidate for the coveted post but the man who would have been a dream fundraiser left the field clear to four other hopefuls. Mr Patten (58), fought off a spirited challenge from Lord Bingham, senior law lord who insisted that being Chancellor was “not just a business of dressing up in funny clothes and drinking the best claret the colleges have available.” The other two also-rans were Lord Neill, head of a watchdog investigating parliamentary sleaze, and comedienne Sandi Toksvig — a graduate of rival Cambridge University. Mr Patten, now the European Union’s Commissioner for External Relations, brings plenty of political clout to his new job in a university eager to win the ear of the great and the good in Britain’s corridors of power. Mr Patten, who has now captured one of the pearls of the British establishment, was never enamoured of the Brussels bureaucracy and a new life amid the dreaming spires of Oxford has immense appeal for one of its former students.
Reuters |
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