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Growing European opposition to any unilateral attack

Tony Paterson
Monday 09 September 2002 00:00 BST
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Belgium led a chorus of European disapproval yesterday by claiming Tony Blair's "unquestioning" support for America was the main reason for the lack of a unified EU policy on tackling Saddam Hussein.

Speaking on television, Louis Michel, the Belgian Foreign Minister, said the European Union was unable to state its opposition to President Bush's plans for the region with a single voice. "It is in large part because Britain, through Tony Blair, gives unquestioned, unilateral support to the United States," he told Belgium's weekly television news magazine Mise au Point.

Mr Michel, who has been a critic of any military action against Iraq, said his country would not support an attack on President Saddam's regime if America could not prove that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction. "I would like to see some proof. I agree with those who say that there is no question of supporting an attack if the Security Council has not approved it and if ... we do not have the belief there is a danger," he said.

Mr Michel said he had met Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, during the Earth Summit in Johannesburg and had told him United Nations weapons inspectors should be readmitted to Iraq.

Germany and France added to the opposition by reiterating their opposition to a unilateral US attack. "We are jointly opposed to an isolated and one-sided action," said Chancellor Gerhard Schröder after meeting President Jacques Chirac in Hanover on Saturday.

Differences between the two countries were also apparent. While Mr Schröder continued to rule out the involvement of German troops under any circumstances, President Chirac stressed France would be governed by United Nations Security Council rulings. "Whatever measures France decides to adopt will depend on the debate there," he said.

German opinion of American policy plumbed new depths at the weekend when a senior member of Mr Schröder's governing Social Democrats accused President Bush of behaving like a Roman emperor. "Bush is behaving as if he were Caesar Augustus and Germany was his province Germania," said Ludwig Stiegler, the Social Democrats' parliamentary leader. His remarks prompted criticism from the opposition conservatives, who demanded an apology.

Wolfgang Schäuble, the conservatives' foreign policy expert, accused Mr Schröder of "seriously damaging German-American relations". But there appeared to be some weakening in the German government's stance when the Social Democrats' foreign policy spokesman, Gernot Erler, said that if the UN decided to use troops to ensure the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq, German forces would take part.

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, joined opposition from Greece and Spain to a unilateral American attack on Iraq. "We Europeans think we must follow the United Nations route. Kofi Annan has a margin in which to negotiate, although it is not infinite."

He told the Spanish daily El Pais: "We have to try it [the UN], since to open the Iraqi front now would make it harder to resolve other problems."

Mariano Rajoy, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, said his country wanted to exhaust all diplomatic avenues.

Costas Simitis, the Greek Prime Minister, said his country would not take part in an American attack on Iraq unless there was UN backing.

In Russia, Igor Ivanov, the Foreign Minister, said an attack on Iraq could undermine efforts to combat international terrorism and indicated that Russia might use its power of veto at the UN Security Council to oppose any attack.

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