Transcript of Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov Remarks to Russian Media on Outcome of Telephone Conversations with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique de Villepin and of Meeting with Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)

RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

October 22, 2002

Foreign Minister Ivanov: Active consultations on the Iraqi settlement issue are continuing these days, the task of which is to achieve by politico-diplomatic methods the early return of international inspectors to Iraq on the basis of the appropriate UN Security Council resolutions with a view to their fulfillment of their mission associated with the question of weapons of mass destruction. I today had telephone conversations with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Dominique de Villepin, as well as a meeting with Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC). We discussed the situation around Iraq and our possible further moves.

We have repeatedly stressed that Russia stands for the early return of international inspectors to Iraq. For this purpose we are prepared together with the other members of the UN Security Council to work on the draft of a resolution which would ensure the efficient work of the inspectors, would be realistic and would contain no provisions opening the way to an automatic use of force. Based on these criteria, we are ready to work further with our partners in the UNSC.

The American draft resolution, presented yesterday for a preliminary discussion within the framework of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, so far does not exactly meet the criteria we set forth earlier. So within the UN Security Council and outside it there will be continued active consultations on this issue; Russia is interested to see a mutually acceptable solution found in the UNSC which would help preserve unity within the Security Council, above all, among its permanent members, and would open the way for a political settlement of the Iraq problem on the basis of the relevant UNSC resolutions.

Question: Was the conversation with Colin Powell a scheduled one?

Foreign Minister Ivanov: Colin Powell and I are regularly holding telephone conversations. In view of the fact that yesterday the American side had presented its draft resolution, we agreed to exchange opinions and to elaborate the further procedure of work on that resolution. I repeat so far it is preliminary consultations that are going on. The draft resolution officially has not been introduced for consideration in the UNSC. Consultations will be continued. For the day after tomorrow I am scheduled to meet with the US Secretary of State in Mexico on the sidelines of the APEC summit. If required, we will discuss this question there too.

Question: Does a dissonance exist in the positions of France and the US?

Foreign Minister Ivanov: In the course of yesterday's preliminary consultations both Russia and France and some other SC permanent members expressed their thoughts on the draft presented by the American side. The consultations are continuing. Apparently it'll take some time before it becomes clear to what extent it is possible to bring the positions closer so as to reach mutually acceptable solutions.

Question: Igor Sergeyevich, which provisions of the draft resolution do not suit Russia?

Foreign Minister Ivanov: I said about the criteria by which Russia guides itself in approach to the adoption of a new resolution. As you know, we were initially saying that for the commencement of the work of international inspectors no additional resolution is required, and my present conversation with Mr. Blix has borne this out. For the inspectors the mandate of the existing resolutions is sufficient, which allow them to get down to work at once. However, Hans Blix is saying that if a resolution is to be adopted, it is important that that should occur before the deployment of the mission of international inspectors, not afterwards, so as not to have to make additional corrections to their activity later on. I cannot but agree with him.

Considering that some UN Security Council members raised the necessity of adopting a new resolution, we gave consent to its discussion but proceeding from the criteria on which we based ourselves. The draft presented by the American side does not meet these criteria, and so now within the framework of the consultations we are explaining our approaches, our vision of the provisions of the draft resolution which yesterday was presented to us.