France denies war discussions

2003-11-04 19:00

Paris - France's Foreign Ministry denied on Tuesday that Paris had played any role in convincing Saddam Hussein that a war in Iraq could have been avoided through diplomacy.

Herve Ladsous, the ministry's spokesperson, dismissed as "completely unfounded" claims reportedly made by former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz during interrogation by US officials.

The comments by Aziz first appeared on Monday in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and were later confirmed by a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Aziz, who surrendered in April, told interrogators that Saddam may have been convinced by his Russian and French contacts that diplomatic actions in the United Nations would forestall a US invasion.

"There was no French emissary commissioned to go to Iraq to meet Saddam Hussein carrying any kind of assurances," Ladsous said, adding that France had repeatedly called on Iraqi authorities to respect international obligations as the only means of avoiding a crisis.

Ladsous said that similar "rumours" had circulated in the run-up to the US invasion in March, which Paris "systematically denied."

France, which led opposition on the war in Iraq, argued that UN inspectors needed more time to uncover Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Paris stood in the way of a US proposal to win UN authorisation for military action, threatening to veto the measure.

- SAPA