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Russia Vows to Stop US Move to Legitimise Iraq War
MOSCOW, March 22 (Reuters) - Russia vowed on Saturday
to block any future moves by the United States and its
allies to win U.N. blessing for the military action
against Iraq and the post-war power structures they
might set up there.
Keeping up fierce Russian criticism of the U.S. and
British offensive, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said
he expected Washington to seek retroactive approval
for their action from the United Nations after Iraqi
resistance had been crushed.
``Attempts will undoubtedly be made in the U.N.
Security Council to find ways which would help
legitimise the military operations and the post-war (political)
set-up in Iraq,'' he told a defence and foreign policy
conference outside Moscow.
``We will follow this very carefully and we will not,
of course, give legitimacy to this action in the
Security Council,'' Ivanov said.
Russia has veto rights on the Council which allow it
to block resolutions it opposes.
The fall-out over Iraq has dealt a hard knock to
U.S.-Russian relations which have enjoyed an unusual
period of warmth since President Vladimir Putin threw
Moscow's support behind the U.S. war on terror
following the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York
and Washington.
Putin, who forged close personal ties with U.S.
President George W. Bush, took the gloves off against
Washington last Thursday for the first time in 18
months, denouncing the military action as a ``big
political mistake'' and called for it to be ended
rapidly.
In the run-up to the U.S. and British offensive,
Russia aligned itself with U.N. heavyweights France
and China in opposing U.S. plans to use force to
topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and disarm Iraq of
alleged banned weapons.
Ivanov told journalists: ``I don't think Iraq needs a
democracy brought on the wings of Tomahawk (missiles).''
Speaking to the conference, he expressed concern over
the future of Russia's considerable economic interests
in the region once Saddam had been removed.
Reflecting fears that a pro-U.S. administration in
Iraq might declare Saddam-era contracts null and void,
he said: ``We must defend our interests so that the
contracts signed under Saddam Hussein will not be
cancelled and declared invalid.''
And he cast doubt over Bush's assurances that the
United States did not intend to seize control of
Iraq's oil wealth.
``Although it is being said that Iraq's natural
resources belong only to the Iraqi people there will
be an enormous desire to acquire these resources. And
one of our aims is to defend our legal interests (in
Iraq),'' he said.
Russian oil companies have been deeply involved in
Iraq and have the most to lose should any post-Saddam
government seek investment from leading U.S. or
British oil majors to develop Iraq's huge crude
reserves.
He made it clear that Moscow had no intention of
complying with a request by Washington for nations to
close down Iraqi embassies and force pro-Saddam
diplomats to leave.
Calling the request strange, he said: ``We wrote to
the (U.S.) State Department asking them what was
behind this.''
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