Russian Federation Council Speaker: There Still Exist Channels for Peaceful Settlement of Iraqi Issue

Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Sergei Mironov said on Friday that there still existed channels for a peaceful settlement of the Iraqi issue.

Mr. Mironov stressed that Russia had to use all UN Security Council tools to prevent a military operation against Iraq.

"Don't think that if a statesman has announced a date of the beginning of a military operation we have nothing to do but to lose heart and wait for it," he said.

On Thursday, Sergei Mironov conducted a meeting with head of the Senate of the Belgian Parliament Armand De Decker. The Iraqi issue was the key one on the agenda of their meeting.

Head of the Upper Chamber of the Belgian Parliament told journalists that "Belgium is still sure the Iraqi issue should be settled on the basis of international law." Hussein himself must take the decision to disarm Iraq and the process itself must be in line with the UN resolution on Iraq, Armand De Decker said.

The Belgian politician pointed out that any military operation had to be approved by an appropriate UN Security Council resolution. At present, according to him, a military operation is not necessary." "We are sure that UN inspectors have to go on working in Iraq and Hussein must disarm the country to please the international community," he said.

The Speaker of the Russian Federation Council stressed that both Russian and Belgian Parliaments had the same stances towards the Iraqi issue. "We must do our best to settle the issue in a peaceful way and not to allow any country including the USA to use force unilaterally violating international law and the resolution of the UN Security Council," Sergei Mironov emphasized.

Mr. Mironov is sure that we still have UN tools at hand and the international community should use them to settle the Iraqi issue peacefully.