Iraq Given ‘Last Chance’

Trying to salvage some unity at a time of deep division, European leaders told Iraq on Monday that it had a “last chance” to disarm immediately but stopped short of saying when continued noncompliance by Baghdad would lead to war.

After a weekend outpouring of antiwar sentiment in many of their capitals, the heads of the 15 European Union nations met in an emergency session to patch over differences that have severely strained relations among them and with the United States.

The result was a joint statement affirming their desire to see Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein eliminate any weapons of mass destruction, a process that they warned could not be drawn out indefinitely. But the statement did not go much further, indicating that fundamental questions about the need and timing for military intervention remain unresolved.

U.S. officials indicated that they and their British allies were planning to go ahead with the introduction this week of a second resolution that would push reluctant U.N. Security Council members to confront Iraq.

Even as European leaders were making their show of unity, France explicitly rebuffed the U.S. and British efforts to shape a new resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac told reporters before the EU summit that inspectors ought to be allowed more time to do their work.

“There is no need for a second resolution today, which France would have no choice but to oppose,” Chirac said.

Although Washington insists that it needs no further United Nations backing to launch military action, it has tried in recent days to garner more international support.

The content of a new Security Council resolution has yet to be decided. However, in addition to pronouncing Iraq in breach of U.N. requirements, U.S. and British officials are weighing whether to include specific deadlines for demands to be met, such as more extensive private interviews with Iraqi scientists, surveillance overflights and the destruction of prohibited missiles and other arms.

“There are lots of ways to say ‘Cough up your chemical weapons by a certain date or else you’re going to get it,’ ” said a senior State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I suspect we’ll have to get some sort of combination of clarification and inducement and allow people to decide.”

Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, said that it was up to the Security Council to issue any ultimatum to Iraq, but that inspectors would welcome increased pressure on Baghdad to fulfill specific demands that the United Nations has made.

An open U.N. debate is scheduled to begin today, giving countries that are not members of the Security Council a chance to express their views. The debate is likely to continue into Wednesday, meaning that any new resolution might not be introduced until later in the week.

But diplomats said negotiations on the resolution could be finished by Feb. 28, when the Security Council receives the next update from its weapons inspectors.

On Monday, in an indication that Baghdad is seeking to appear more cooperative, Iraq reported that a U-2 spy plane flew over the country in aid of inspectors’ work.

In addition to the sharp division between the United States and some of its European allies, rifts have opened among the Europeans themselves. In addition to Britain, countries including Italy and Spain back the U.S. position.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to Brussels hoping that the EU would give Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a deadline to disarm.

“Most people understand if that cannot be done peacefully, it must be done by force,” Blair said. “That’s why we require a timetable.”

But none was issued. At Germany’s insistence, the joint statement deleted language endorsed by the British and other supporters of the U.S. that “time was rapidly running out” for Hussein.

There was a small sign, however, that Germany, one of the most implacable opponents of war against Iraq, might be softening its position slightly.

Last year, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder declared that his country would not support or participate in military intervention against Iraq, even if the Security Council authorized such a move.

Yet Schroeder signed off on the final EU declaration, which mentions force as an option, and he acknowledged that the U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf was vital to pushing Iraq toward compliance.

“We have never ruled out that war can be a last resort,” Schroeder said.

In general, analysts said, the EU’s collective statement represented the lowest common denominator, an affirmation of basic goals that both sides of the spectrum could endorse.

“It seems a fairly anodyne statement: ‘We support the U.N., and of course Saddam’s a bad man,’ ” said Steven Everts, an analyst with the London-based Center for European Reform. “They managed to agree on the bare minimum.”

Even that was in question when Greece, which holds the rotating EU presidency and which convened the emergency session, declined to put on the table a draft statement for members to discuss -- a sign of how sensitive and divisive the debate is.

That a joint declaration emerged at all, after four hours of discussion, was due in large part to what analysts said was an overriding desire to make some show of European unity after months of squabbling.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said it was “an important and significant thing for the European Union ... that its members should speak with one voice, that they should arrive at common views and that they should follow a common line.”

There was little doubt, however, that the antiwar faction within the EU, led by France and Germany and supported by less populous countries such as Belgium and Sweden, went into the meeting feeling momentum.

Last week’s report by U.N. weapons inspectors made a strong pitch for more time, a position echoed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who addressed the EU leaders during their closed session.

“At some stage the [Security] Council may decide we’re just wasting our time and we should call a halt to our inspections,” Annan said afterward.

The massive peace protests over the weekend also bolstered the resolve of nations in favor of slowing down the march to war. Demonstrators jammed the streets of several European capitals, including those whose heads of government have sided squarely with the U.S.

In London, where at least 750,000 protesters and possibly as many as 2 million marched against war on Saturday, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged the depth of opposition in his country.

“We have to take account of public opinion,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

“We cannot forget the millions in the streets this weekend,” warned Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission.

The EU’s declaration, reiterating the desire for a peaceful solution, was “the right decision at the right time,” Prodi said.

Chirac, the French president, went further.

He launched a stinging attack on EU aspirants in Eastern Europe that have come out in support of Washington, labeling their actions “infantile” and “dangerous.”

The seeming rapprochement among EU members was foreshadowed by an agreement by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Sunday to help Turkey prepare to defend itself in case of war with Iraq. That decision -- from which France was excluded through a procedural ploy -- ended weeks of dispute.

But Turkish officials indicated that the Bush administration was likely to face a further delay in its military buildup, saying parliament probably would not take up the issue today as previously planned.

The U.S. hopes that Turkey, which borders northern Iraq, will provide a launching pad for tens of thousands of American soldiers mobilized to fight in Iraq.

On the sidelines of Monday’s EU meeting in Brussels, Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said the Ankara government and Washington had still not ironed out all the details and implications of a U.S. deployment.

A key issue is how much aid Turkey will receive from the U.S. in exchange for its assistance. The Turkish government is concerned about a possible backlash because Turks are overwhelmingly against a war.

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Times staff writer Maggie Farley at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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War of words on Iraq

Officials made the following statements Monday:

“Baghdad should have no illusions: It must disarm and cooperate immediately. It has a final opportunity to solve the crisis peacefully.”

From a European Union declaration on Iraq

“At some stage the [Security] Council may decide we’re just wasting our time and we should call a halt to our inspections.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

“There is no need for a second resolution today, which France would have no choice but to oppose.”

French President Jacques Chirac

“We have never ruled out that war can be a last resort.”

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

Los Angeles Times