Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Putin Urges Continuation of Inspections in Iraq
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday stressed the need for the continuation of international inspections in Iraq in compliance with the United Nations Security Council's resolution.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday stressed the need for the continuation of international inspections in Iraq in compliance with the United Nations Security Council's resolution.
He said this in a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair Monday, the Russian president's press service reported.
The two leaders noted that coordinated political and diplomatic efforts should be applied, just as they were in other international conflicts, in order to relieve international concerns.
Russia has stepped up its opposition to a possible United States-British military action against Iraq as chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission Hans Blix and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammed ElBaradei are both scheduled to give reports Monday on the inspectors' work to the UN Security Council.
Earlier on Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotovdismissed the coming reports "as the last boundary for international inspectors". He insisted that weapons inspectors should continue their mission for as long as necessary in order to determine whether Iraq has destroyed its weapons of mass destruction.
The Foreign Ministry's spokesman Alexander Yakovenko also said on Monday that there was no need for any new resolutions of the Security Council on Iraq.
Putin and Blair also discussed the nuclear program crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. They said that there were still legal international ways to overcome the crisis.