Putin says US-British strikes on Iraq unhelpful

Putin says US-British strikes on Iraq unhelpful
Reuters

FEB 20: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that US and British air strikes on Iraqi targets were counter-productive to efforts to resolve Baghdad's standoff with the West on weapons inspections.

Putin's comments, in a Kremlin statement outlining a telephone conversation with French President Jacques Chirac, were his first since last Friday's raids near Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, the foreign ministry said it had no immediate plans to protest against the strikes at the UN Security Council as parliament pressed for Russia to abandon sanctions against Baghdad.

The Kremlin said Putin and Chirac had discussed a wide range of international issues during a discussion lasting more than 30 minutes.

"During an exchange of views on the Iraq situation, the closeness of Russia's and France's positions was confirmed in assessing the recent air strikes...as counter-productive for the process of a political settlement," it said.

"Russia and France intend to work actively to restore the dialogue between the Iraqi side and the United States and to undertake efforts for the rapid resolution of the Iraqi question on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions."

Russia, keen to win contracts for its oil firms, has called for an end to UN sanctions against Iraq, imposed to punish Baghdad for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Moscow has also urged Baghdad to resume dialogue with the UN on arms inspections.

The strikes on air defence installations on the outskirts of Baghdad have split NATO members, with France condemning the action as illegal and Germany withholding public support.

French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine said on television that there was "no legal basis for this type of bombardment".

The United States and Britain said the raids were a limited action against five sites which had threatened pilots enforcing no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War and intended to protect Kurds in northern Iraq and Shi'ite Moslems in the South.

Foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko, quoted by Interfax news agency, had earlier said there was little point in putting the matter to the Security Council.

"It's virtually impossible now to have any sort of discussion about the activities of the United States or Britain and demand that these states stop bombing (Iraq)," Yakovenko was quoted as saying.

He said the United States and Britain could veto any such a move by fellow permanent UN Security Council members.

The raids have exacerbated anti-Western sentiment in Russia, and triggered a chorus of condemnation which united Russia's often fractious political class.

Parliament will on Wednesday consider a resolution asking Putin to abandon the sanctions, said Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of the State Duma lower house's foreign affairs committee.

As the armed forces commander-in-chief, Putin decides defence and foreign policy issues and can ignore the non-binding vote even if the Rogozin resolution wins majority support.

Flamboyant nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an outspoken supporter of Iraq, said after arriving in Baghdad that he would do his best to get Russia to lift the sanctions.