PARIS — Russian President Vladimir V. Putin joined France and Germany on Monday in calling for beefed-up arms inspections in Iraq, giving Paris a victory in its diplomatic campaign to block a U.S. war against the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Russia's move complicated matters for the United States and reaffirmed French President Jacques Chirac as the leader of "the war against the war," as commentators call it here. Chirac and Putin said U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq have already yielded results, rejecting Washington's verdict that Iraqi intransigence has made inspections useless.
"We are against the war," Putin said. "Both of our countries insist on the need to solve the problem and the crisis diplomatically."
Iraq must cooperate actively, the French and Russian leaders said, and Baghdad on Monday acceded to a top demand of U.N. inspectors by announcing that it would allow U-2 spy planes to operate without restriction to bolster the monitors' mission. But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said allowing the flights "does nothing to change the bottom line."
Putin's alignment with France and Germany and the agreement on the U-2 flights were not the only apparent setbacks for the Bush administration's campaign against Iraq on Monday. During a heated meeting of NATO in Brussels, France, joined by Belgium and Germany, blocked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from starting contingency plans to protect Turkey in the event of war. The three dissenting nations argued that preparing for war sends the wrong signal at the wrong time, but indignant U.S. officials accused them of causing a crisis in the alliance by failing to come to the defense of a member.
Russia and France are key players on the U.N. Security Council, which the U.S. is trying to rally to endorse military action against Iraq. In their declaration Monday, Putin and Chirac urged that the debate with the United States take place in a "spirit of friendship and respect." But the message from both men was a clear rebuff to U.S. efforts to build a coalition for the use of force.
The world must work to avoid further bloodshed and turmoil in the Middle East, Chirac said.
"Nothing today justifies a war," he said. "This region really does not need another war."
