France warns against US action on Iraq

Unilateral action against Iraq by the United States would be a “very grave and serious” breach of international law and will further isolate the American position in the world, a French politician warned today.

Jacques Myard, a member of France’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was speaking after French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder restated their joint hostility to military intervention IN Iraq.

They are opposing any UN resolution which sanctions the automatic use of force if Iraq fails to comply over weapons inspections.

“The French position is very clear and I know it is supported by many other countries,” Mr Myard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We want first resolutions and the inspectors back with a very clear mandate. Then they have to come back ... to report to the united council which is going to say then if yes or not Saddam Hussein has broken the law and therefore is rearming.”

A “blank mandate” could not be given to the US, he said.

“The French President has said that very clearly to Mr Bush and when I hear what is happening now in the US ... which is to link external action – which is of course very serious – and an internal election which is something different I think that is very disturbing ...”

Mr Myard said he was not accusing President Bush of being motivated by domestic politics, but added: “I think this is not the right approach.”

He told the programme: “First of all, it is my own opinion, there are many other states in the region which are not abiding by Security Council resolutions.

“Secondly, after you use force what will happen to this region nobody knows because it is one thing to have, to use force, and it is another thing to have a political solution to the problem.”

He added: “If the United States went out without UN Security Council resolutions I really doubt France will go along.

“If it is clearly proved that this Saddam Hussein is really rearming then I know that the French Government as it did before, as it did in Afghanistan, will then use force to implement international law.

“But a unilateral action coming from United States will be really a very grave and serious breach of international law and secondly will really isolate the US in the world and it really is what the Americans are suffering today.”