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PARIS, Feb 17: A public opinion poll published on Monday has 81 per cent of the French saying that if the United States ever introduces a pro-war resolution before the UN Security Council, France should definitely make use of its veto, and not simply abstain as President Jacques Chirac has suggested he might do.
The new poll, which has been conducted by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), shows not only that more Frenchmen than ever favour the use of veto, those “firmly” in favour of the veto make up wholly 49 per cent of the sample, with another 32 per cent saying they are “more or less” favourable to its use. Only eight per cent say they are opposed.
And, in spite of what President Chirac affirms in the latest issue of Time magazine, that France is “not anti-American,” the IFOP poll does show that the persistence of the threat of war coming from the United States has resulted in a greater number of Frenchmen admitting they have become anti-American.
In the words of Jean-Luc Parodi, a public opinion specialist, “not only is a traditional form of (French) anti-Americanism, that has long been absent, seeing a resurgence among a minority of the French, the way, moreover, that the United States has handled the crisis has brought about new opposition (to the US) among the French.”
He goes on to quote respondents to the poll who noted that “it’s not up to the Americans to tell the world what to do,” that “the US is undertaking a war which concerns them but not us,” and that “the Americans should be told they are not the masters of the world.”
NO SECOND RESOLUTION: Meanwhile, on Sunday French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, said “a second Security Council resolution that we understand is being prepared by the United States is completely unnecessary at this stage.”
In an interview with a Paris-based weekly, the minister also said: “We really have only one single objective before us, and that is the disarmament of Iraq, which is the only goal which we should set for ourselves. Others, like the elimination of Saddam Hussein, are superfluous.”
Mr de Villepin, whose Security Council intervention on Friday evoke a rare show of applause, added that Resolution 1441 “provides us with a number of possibilities that until now have not been explored. And then, the resolution foresees no timetable, except to encourage the inspectors, as long as they are in place and can do their job, to maintain their present course.”
He also noted that there were a number of options still available to the United Nations for it to carry out its objective of disarming Iraq, among them the providing of stepped-up means of surveillance, notably through the French-made Mirage-IV jet, a greater collaboration in the exchange of intelligence, eventually the constitution of a corps of “supervisors” who would remain on the sites already inspected and be in charge of their “permanent control.”
CHIRAC: French President Jacques Chirac told reporters on Monday in Brussels that there was no need for a second United Nations resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq at present while arms inspections continue, and France would oppose it, Reuters reported.
Arriving for an emergency European Union summit on the Iraq crisis, Mr Chirac said the international community was pursuing the aim of the peaceful disarmament of Iraq through weapons inspections.
“We consider that war is always, always, the worst solution. That is our position which leads us to conclude that it is not necessary today to have a second resolution, which France could only oppose,” he told reporters.—Reuters
