Paris, July 14: France's defence minister today called for the resumption of United Nations weapons inspections in Iraq, saying it was the only way to remove continuing doubts about the existence or not of weapons of mass destruction in the country. “The best way to remove the doubts would be to let the UN inspectors go in and see what the situation is on the ground," Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told state-owned media today.
The international community was not in a position to know if the alleged weapons existed, although it was clear that if the former Iraqi regime had had them, it had not chosen to use them when it was "in great difficulty" during the US-led war, she added. Alliot-Marie said France was "ready to help with the reconstruction of Iraq" but only within a framework created by the United Nations.
Her comments came amid increasing controversy in Britain and the United States, which led the war on Iraq against opposition from France and other European countries, over the fact that to date no weapons of mass destruction have been found in the oil-rich country. Both London and Washington cited the alleged presence of such weapons as the main justification for invading Iraq. Bureau Report