PADG03-9/12: 4 Naval Covers "DE GAULLE AC - UN SECURITY COUNCIL Iraq War 2003" - Military Label "CHIRAC - NO to the war"

Iraq-UN disarmament crisis - Second Gulf War Iraq 2003 : war or peaceful disarmament?

The NO of French President Jacques Chirac

UN, March 18, 2003: through the words of his Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, President Jacques Chirac himself calls for "everyone's responsibility", the day before the start of a war that will last eight years and will claim thousands of victims.

In February 2003, Hans Blix, head of the UN inspectors, submitted his new report on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and called for new inspections. At the UN Security Council, Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, says Saddam Hussein is not playing the inspection game. Convinced that a war will destabilize the region, hoping that the inspections will continue, Jacques Chirac entrusts Dominique de Villepin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the task of leading the diplomatic battle at the UN.

But Europe is cruelly divided by the proclamation of a "call for unity with the United States", launched by eight European heads of government, “Supporters of military action” (United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark and three future members of the EU, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Facing them, the “supporters of a peaceful solution” (France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Austria and Russia).

By threatening to veto a second UN Security Council resolution that would support war, Jacques Chirac, leader of the "supporters of a peaceful solution" angered US President George W. Bush. This is the most serious Franco-American crisis since General de Gaulle's decision to leave the integrated command of NATO in 1966!

The second Iraq war began the next day, March 19, launched by the United States allied with Great Britain.