China pushes for Iraq diplomacy

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An Iraqi police oficer walks outside the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad

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BEIJING, China -- With Russia and France reiterating their opposition to military intervention in Iraq, China is insisting a political resolution must be found to end the crisis.

The stance from the three countries, all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, is being seen as a blow for the new, tougher U.N. draft resolution against Iraq being proposed by the United States and Britain -- the other two permanent members.

"The top priority at this moment is to let U.N. weapon inspectors return to Iraq as soon as possible and start work smoothly," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told reporters on Thursday.

"Relevant actions of the Security Council should take this as the aim and be conducive to promoting a political resolution to the Iraqi issue," he said when asked about China's stance towards the new U.S.-backed U.N. resolution on arms inspections.

Though China has repeatedly stressed Iraq should obey existing resolutions, which call for the unconditional return of weapons inspectors, it is expected to abstain in a vote on the new resolution.

While the U.S. has garnished strong support from Britain on the new draft resolution, this is being tempered by resistance from the other permanent Security Council members.

'Unacceptable'

For the first time, Moscow rejected the draft resolution, describing the proposal as "unacceptable."

"Attempts to make the U.N. Security Council subscribe to the automatic use of force against Iraq are unacceptable for us," said Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, speaking at a round table in Moscow on Thursday. (Full story)

Saltanov went on to say "what the British and Americans have presented to us only strengthens us in the correctness of our view that the inspection/monitoring regime in Iraq should be resumed and that a political solution concerning this country is needed without the automatic use of force."

France indicated that it would reject any resolution which might be viewed as paving the way towards U.S.-led military action without further U.N. approval.

But French President Jacques Chirac said it would keep its options open in case Baghdad ultimately blocked arms inspections.

"We are totally opposed to any resolution that gave as of now an automatic character to military intervention," Chirac said in a statement on Wednesday.

Briefing

The five permanent members of the council will be briefed by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed El Baradei on the details of talks held with Iraqi officials earlier this week concerning the return of weapons inspectors.

The U.N. Security Council will not formally discuss the difficult subject of an Iraq resolution until after the Thursday briefing from weapons inspectors, officials told CNN.

One Chinese diplomat told CNN Wednesday that "cosmetic changes will not be enough" to satisfy their concerns with the current U.S. draft resolution. "The U.S. will have to decide to go on alone" or "compromise," the diplomat said.

On one hand, analysts say, China has made it clear it is averse to military action, with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji warning that an attack on Iraq would bring "incalculable consequences."

On the other hand, Beijing also doesn't want to be isolated. So it is likely to look on Russia, France and Germany's take on the situation, and seems certain to try to strike a middle vote.

Most likely China will abstain instead of vetoing any initiative by the U.S. in exchange for some kind of concession in the future.

This is a more pragmatic stance compared to when China abstained on almost all Security Council votes before the 1991 Gulf War and opposed sanctions on Iraq afterwards.

Observers say China is stuck between a desire to foster good ties with Iraq and secure access to its oil while also trying to improve relations with the United States.

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