Strasbourg, 11/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - "It may not be necessary to go to war, if Saddam Hussein finally stands down and disarms", declared to Agence EUROPE the American Ambassador to the European Union, Rockwell Schnabell when visiting Strasbourg on Tuesday. While sticking firmly to the American position, the Ambassador seemed to want to play down the dispute between the United States and "Old Europe". "I shall not myself use the tem 'Old Europe'", he stressed. The fact that France, Germany and Belgium decided to vote against the majority of the members of NATO Monday evening "was clearly a disappointment, but not a final stance", he remarked. That Russia should have joined the Franco-German stance Monday was "a bit of a surprise", but there too, the position "is not final", he thinks. However, given that "UN Security Council Resolution 1441 does not require another resolution", military action without new resolution, in the absence of UN agreement, "remains an option". What will happen now? The United States representative to the EU refused to prejudice the coming events on Tuesday, and simply said that they had to wait for the report that the UN weapons inspectors would be presenting to the Security Council on Friday.
"If there is a European summit, we very much hope that a united European position will emerge to tell Saddam Hussein to respect the UN Resolution" he commented regarding the Summit that the Greek Presidency has convened for Monday.
Why does the United States want to attack Iraq and not North Korea? "Iraq has been a problem for twelve years, the Korean problem is more recent, and lies in a region where many countries (Japan, South Korea, China….) are involved in talks", said the Ambassador as explanation. According to him, "it's the same type of problem but in different circumstances".
Rockwell Schnabell was visiting Strasbourg on the occasion of a meeting of the "Kangaroo" parliamentary inter-group.