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Putin: Iraq war a mistake
17/03/2003 15:33 - (SA)
Moscow - A US-led war against Iraq would be a "mistake" that would seriously destabilise the international situation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday as Moscow urged its nationals in Iraq to leave.
"We favour resolving the issue (of Iraqi disarmament) by peaceful means. Any other development would be a mistake with the most serious consequences, leading to casualties and the destabilisation of the international situation as a whole," the Russian leader said.
Putin's comments to a group of visiting Chechen religious leaders were his first direct comments on the Iraq crisis for several weeks.
He said Russia's position on Iraq had remained clear, comprehensible and constant.
Moscow has said it will not allow any UN Security Council resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq to pass as long as all possibilities of disarming Iraq by peaceful means had not been exhausted.
Russia earlier urged all nationals in Iraq other than diplomatic personnel to leave the country.
"In view of the deterioration of the situation in Iraq, the foreign ministry is recommending to its nationals that they leave Iraq and refrain from travelling to that country," foreign ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
Bomb shelter
A US-led attack on Iraq appeared imminent on Monday after the United States and Britain told their nationals to leave Kuwait, bordering Iraq.
Earlier on Monday, the Interfax news agency reported, a source in the Russian embassy in Baghdad said that staffing had been reduced to around 25 people.
These would offer security for any Russian nationals who, in the case of an attack, should need it, "including bomb shelters," the source said, adding that further personnel reductions were likely.
Most Russian technicians and specialists working under contract in Iraq were flown out of the country last week.
However a delegation of Russian Orthodox church figures and Muslim clerics flew out of Moscow and due to land in Baghdad later on Monday, media reported.
Despite a warning by US President George W Bush on Sunday that the UN Security Council had just a day in which to back a resolution, a top Russian foreign ministry official confirmed there was "no chance" of Washington winning Security Council approval to authorise the use of force against Iraq.
"This draft resolution continues to have no chance of getting through the UN Security Council. We do not believe that any new resolutions are necessary," said deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov.
His comments were, word for word, exactly the same as those he uttered on Sunday before the Azores summit between US President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
They confirmed that the latest diplomatic efforts by Washington and London had failed to sway Moscow's views on the best way of disarming President Saddam Hussein's regime.
Veto
Fedotov said that members of the UN Security Council - where Russia wields a veto - "will support a political settlement to the Iraqi crisis."
The Itar-Tass news agency separately quoted Fedotov as saying that Russia hoped the crisis could be resolved "through UN Security Council resolutions, and through continued inspections."
The Kremlin refused to say whether Putin had spoken by telephone with either Bush or Blair.
Putin was expected to speak with the US and British leaders some time on Monday.
Russian media meanwhile said there was little left for Russia to do after the Azores summit but to join the United States and Britain in the seemingly inevitable attack on Iraq.
"The end of diplomacy," the Kommersant business daily announced in a banner headline, while Nezavisamaya Gazeta warned it would be "unreasonable to flagrantly confront the great American superpower."
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