[FR] Considerations on Iraqi Circe and the effects on common foreign policy on the eve of a war that has been announced

The heads of state (Havel) and government of eight European countries (the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic), all current or future members of the European Union and all members of the Atlantic Alliance, took a stand on 30 January in the columns of The Times, in favour of unity and cohesion with US policy, distancing themselves from the reservations expressed in Berlin and Paris and thus implicitly endorsing the distinction made by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld between the countries of ‘old Europe’ and the others.

The initiative for the article came from Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar. He was due to meet Tony Blair in Madrid on the day the article was published, and the British Prime Minister was to be received by President Bush at Camp David the following day. Since Suez, the Foreign Office’s policy has been never to stray too far from US foreign policy. The date chosen for publication was between the day the UN inspectors’ report was due, Monday 27 January, and the deadline for extending their mission, Wednesday 5 February, the date by which the Americans had promised to provide evidence of Saddam’s guilt. The question of whether to seek a new resolution to supplement Resolution 1441 in light of the results of the inspection mission and to legitimise the use of force remains open: it is not explicitly provided for in Resolution 1441.