“No Modern Problem Has A Military Solution”
Bernard Kouchner [left] was rebuked by Sergei Lavrov [right] over his hawkish Iran remarks
Russia and China warn against war with Iran
Russia and China have criticised France’s foreign minister Bernard Kouchner for talking of “war” with Teheran.
After meeting his French counterpart in Moscow, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, gave warning of the possible consequences of any military strike designed to disable Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We are convinced that no modern problem has a military solution, and that applies to the Iranian nuclear programme as well,” said Mr Lavrov.
“We are seriously concerned about increasingly frequent reports that military action against Iran is being seriously considered.”
Mr Lavrov added that Russia supported the recent agreement reached between Iran and nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Earlier, China’s foreign ministry also criticised Mr Kouchner for raising the possibility of war.
“We believe the best option is to peacefully resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic negotiations, which is in the common interests of the international community,” said Jiang Yu, an official spokesman.
“We do not approve of easily resorting to threatening use of force in international affairs.”
America is now pressing for another UN Resolution which would tighten economic sanctions on Iran.
The trigger for this move was Teheran’s continued enrichment of uranium, a process which could give Iran the essential material for a nuclear bomb.
While Russia and China have already supported two earlier sanctions resolutions, both are signaling that their support for a third cannot be taken for granted.
America is aiming to put a draft Resolution before the Security Council later this month.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has toughened France’s approach towards Teheran and the rhetoric from Paris is now almost as hawkish as anything emerging from Washington.
Yesterday, Mr Kouchner called for tougher ‘precise’ sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.
However, the French foreign minister also said that “everything should be done to avoid war.”
“War is the worst that could happen,” he said. “Everything should be done to avoid war. We have to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate - without cease, without rebuff.”
The five permanent members of the Security Council are now divided between America, Britain and France, who all back tougher sanctions on Iran, and Russia and China, who are openly sceptical.
If another sanctions resolution is passed, it may be a relatively weak measure imposing penalties on specific Iranian companies linked to the nuclear programme - not the economy as a whole.
America has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran.
Urged on by Britain and France, the European Union may well do the same. At present, EU countries support trade with Iran with some £9 billion of export credits.
These are likely to be restricted and European investment in Iran curtailed.
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he softened his purposes
he is taken as an impulsive caviar-lefty by Russians and Iranians
which is true, it doen’t mean he is not right, but that the international conjectures are more important than what he may think
http://www.iran-resist.org/article3800
September 18th, 2007 at 11:27 amUSA, England and France together again….cut off trade with Tehran, tell Russia and China to pound sand!
September 18th, 2007 at 11:30 am“We are convinced that no modern problem has a military solution…..”
Hold that thought Sergei while we bomb Iran back to the Stoning Age they love so much.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:46 amThe EU can get back to doing business with Iran after we take out immanutjob and the mollusks.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:51 am“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace”
-the wisdom of john lennon
“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along”
-the prophet Rodney King
“Power matters. But there can be no absence of moral content in American foreign policy, and furthermore, the American people wouldn’t accept such an absence. Europeans giggle at this and say we’re naive and so on, but we’re not Europeans, we’re Americans - and we have different principles. ”
September 18th, 2007 at 12:00 pm- Condoleezza Rice
John, the mollusks
did you know that your oil is transiting by our place Fos sur Mer, near Marseille, and conveniently would later coming from the mollusks countries too ?
September 18th, 2007 at 12:06 pmIf everything can be solved without military solutions than why is Russia building bigger bombs and flying Russian bombers off European and American Coastlines?
I hope we have plan to keep the oil fields going for our friends, heheheh. No oil for you China; let your Ruskie friends subsidize your ass like they already do.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:06 pm“…but we’re not Europeans, we’re Americans - and we have different principles. ”
And thank God for that.
Oh, and it was overly kind of her to throw in the word “different”. Much more accurate sentence without it when addressing the ‘gigglers’.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:22 pmbut for Iran, you need the EU “gigglers” half/half
September 18th, 2007 at 12:37 pmYour right Russkie!!!
Let them have Chechnya!!!
Why defend Beslan? So what if they murdered hundreds of children in a single day. War doesn’t solve anything, remember?
Ivan, go back to your Vodka and let the big boys handle this ok?
September 18th, 2007 at 12:38 pm“…no modern problem has a military solution…”
I hear ya “big daddy”.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:41 pmIn order to defeat Islamofacism, it will take the full excercise to military power in order to reach that endstate.
Islamic jihad is not a western concept. There is no negotiation in quital(military conquest/jihad) only victor and vanquished. You cannot defeat these people with nice platitudes nor dismiss them with moral equivication arguments.
You will have to beat them with military force.
We need to get out of the Korean War/VN war/GWOT concepts of limited war. We need to go back to the idea of war that we had in the 1940’s and earlier in our history.
We are in a street fight trying to beat an enemy who fights by the rules of the street. While we fight by marques of Queensbury rules.
This ain’t VN or Korea. There is no endgame without total unconditional victory.
This is one modern problem that cries out for a military solution. The irhabis have declared total war on the west. Why aren’t we declaring total war on them?
September 18th, 2007 at 12:42 pmI can name plenty of problems that absolutely require a military solution.
BUT
If he’d said not all problems can be solved by the military then i’d agree more. I’ve got no love for the Iranians but I must admit I can’t help thinking that simply bombing the crap out of Iran won’t solve much and will create more problems for decades to come. Certainly ain’t going to bring down the price of oil.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:11 pmI say its time the armies of diplomats to earn their pay and get it frickin right this time so no more of our boys have to get wasted just because they cant diplome themselves out of a paper bag. Sack Rice for a start. Waste of space.
But if the diplomats give it 1001% and pull out all the stops. THEN its time to unlock the armoury.
Its always good to be nice until it is time not to be nice.
That means now that talking has not worked lets bomb the crap out of them until they decide they’ve had enough. Politics should only enter a war when the enemy has been defeated.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:13 pm