French President Jacques Chirac said on Sunday he was willing to accept a 30-day deadline for Iraq to disarm, provided the move was endorsed by the chief U.N. weapons inspectors. Speaking hours before President Bush was to hold an emergency summit with his top allies backing war, Chirac said the inspectors will be telling the Security Council next week that they believe it is possible to disarm Saddam Hussein peacefully. "One month, two months, I am ready to accept any accord on this point that has the approval of the inspectors," Chirac said in an interview broadcast on CNN. Extracts were released by the president's office in Paris, and the full CBS "60 minutes" interview was scheduled for broadcast Sunday night, Chirac's office said. Asked specifically whether he would accept a 30-day deadline, Chirac said "everything the inspectors propose should be accepted."
Try 72 hours, Jacques. That's plenty of time, coming after 12 years...
The president's comments - backing away from a 120-day period outlined in a joint Russian-French-German memorandum submitted earlier to the Security Council - was a clear move to present his case against war before Bush meets in the Azores islands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar.
Pretty transparent, in fact... |