Today's Date:

THE MINISTER – Those are scenarios which the international community hasn’t provided for. The objective set by the United Nations is the disarmament of Iraq. We’re concentrating on that objective. Regardless of whether other ambitions are pursued – regime change, Saddam Hussein’s departure, all these are possibilities for some countries – for France, there’s one objective and one alone: the disarmament of Iraq. That’s why we’re actively working for it. We want, within the framework laid down by UNSCR 1441, to get Iraq’s active cooperation, which will allow satisfaction of our own demand: Iraq’s complete fulfilment of her international obligations.

THE MINISTER – I perfectly understand that objective being envisaged and it being one for certain countries. For France, we are sticking to this simple objective: the disarmament of Iraq. (...)

THE MINISTER – Today the international community is facing a choice. The choice of cooperation, in accordance with the United Nations' decision, or the choice of resorting to force. And I can understand the United States feeling some impatience. In the current situation, I want to affirm France's very strong determination. We are expressing, every day, the desire for more effective cooperation, more effective inspections. And we note that progress has been made in the past two months. It has to be stepped up, Iraq's active cooperation must be confirmed on the ground. But we think that the inspectors have the means, with nearly 300 inspections carried out every month, really to achieve the objective we have set ourselves, that of disarmament. So there’s every reason to continue, to improve, to take the action necessitated by any difficulties we may encounter. That, I believe, is common sense. The military option would not only entail huge uncertainty, but, above all, would not have the legitimacy of action decided by the international community. So it would not be very effective, since it would revive a number of divisions on the international stage, and we want to avoid it.

THE MINISTER – France's position is simple. So long as the inspectors have the means to make progress and carry out their inspections, there's no reason to change tack, stop the inspections. The day the inspectors tell us: "we can no longer work in Iraq", then the Security Council will have to reconvene and take the necessary decisions. For the moment, this isn't the case. President Chirac talked to Messrs Blix and ElBaradei in Paris.

(...) The inspectors are going to report to the Security Council on 27 January. That will be the time to stake stock. We feel that there is the possibility of achieving a peaceful settlement of this crisis through the inspections. And it's very important in a dangerous world, in a world in crisis, to show that the united international community is capable of taking up the challenge, capable of achieving the objectives it has set itself.

THE MINISTER – There is obviously, in the face of global threats, the need for a global response. This is why we requested a ministerial-level Security Council meeting on terrorism, which was held this morning. At this meeting we noted that the problems are linked: terrorism, proliferation, the crises. There is a feeling of injustice, there are criminal rings which are taking advantage of the world situation. So it's important to be mobilized on every front, to take action, to try to be as effective as possible. And for this we need the international community to do its utmost, display as much imagination as possible. A lot of people could well fail to understand a unilateral military intervention, it would risk arousing a great deal of frustration and would have neither the legitimacy nor the effectiveness that mobilization of international action would give such a project. (...)./.