Brussels, 06/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - Following a short meeting with Colin Powell, in New York, George Papandreou said that "we need answers to all the questions we raised", and then we can "avoid war and have diplomatic success".
Javier Solana commented on the Powell report by declaring: "the content and also the way it was presented were very solid. It has to be taken very seriously by everybody. Everybody should reflect after this report". Saying he was convinced that Saddam Hussein was not co-operating with the inspectors and that he was "concealing dangerous material", Mr. Solana considered that Saddam Hussein "must co-operate fully" while waiting for Hans Blix to hand in his report; the return of the inspectors to Baghdad on 8 February will be "a very important moment", he said.
In the European Parliament, the President of the EPP-ED Group, Hans-Gert Poettering, considered that after the "heavy accusations" of Colin Powell, they had to "review the whole situation", while hoping that the inspectors were given the time necessary to complete their work. Graham Watson, President of the Liberal Group, commented: "Colin Powell has placed America's finger on the trigger, but it should not be pulled without a clear go-ahead from the Security Council" (he also urged the Union to prepare to face the humanitarian consequences of a conflict, and the possible flow of refugees, notably to Iran and Turkey). For the President of the United Left/NGL Group, Francis Wurtz, on the other hand, "the mountain has produced a mouse", and the United States presented a "weak case" after which there "is not a single reason more than before for accepting military action or a preventive war against Iraq". Before leaving for Baghdad where he went with thirty or so MEPs, Wurtz added: Iraq's capabilities of producing weapons of mass destruction must be "dismantled under international control", which is a "mission for the international inspectors and not the American army". The director of the UN Centre of Inspections in Baghdad, he remarked, told us that "as long as the inspectors are here it will be difficult for Iraq to produce weapons". He then said to those who had criticised this trip to Baghdad: "We reject any complicity with the Iraqi regime … We are a parliamentary delegation who have chosen freely to come here and we are representative of the opinion of a great majority of Europeans who reject the war".