Chirac: Washington Is Not Always Right

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Chirac: Washington Is Not Always Right

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French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday defended the French position on the Iraq issue, reaffirming that Paris-Washington relations are "good" but "not founded on the idea that the United States is always right."

"The relations between the United States and France are very old. They are good and will remain good, but they are not founded on the idea that the United States is always right," said Chirac after meeting Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"It (Washington's vision) is not our vision. We have our own assessment of things and we speak out. We do not do so in an aggressive way, but speak out when it seems necessary," said the French president.

"I have said, and I repeat this, war is always the worst solution...Everything must be done to achieve an objective -- which, in this case, is the certainty of the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- by considering all the possibilities before launching a war in a region that doesn't needanother war," said Chirac.

Strongly opposed to Washington's threat of war on Iraq, Paris backs a two-step solution to give the UN Security Council the final say on the use of military force against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Last Thursday, Washington backed down from its demand for an automatic use of force. On Monday it presented a revised draft resolution that laid down a tougher inspection regime for Iraq andreplaced the reference to use "all necessary means", commonly considered to include military force, with a vaguer threat of unspecified "consequences" against Iraq for noncompliance.

France remains reserved on the new draft resolution, insisting that it is up to the UN Security Council, not the United States, to decide whether Iraq's responses to the inspectors warrants the use of force.

The five veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States --were to debate the new draft resolution on Tuesday.

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