ZAGREB, Feb 17 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said on Monday that he would sign the Vilnius Group statement on Iraq again, if the statement was issued under the same circumstances.
ZAGREB, Feb 17 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula
said on Monday that he would sign the Vilnius Group statement on
Iraq again, if the statement was issued under the same
circumstances. #L#
"If the circumstances under which the statement was signed would be
the same and if there would be no departures from vital foreign
political interests, I would sign it again, Picula said at a lecture
held at the Diplomatic Academy in Zagreb.
He explained that the ministers of the countries aspiring to join
NATO had drawn up the statement after the fall of the U.S. space
shuttle "Columbia" and ahead of the speech of the U.S. Secretary of
State, Collin Powell, held before the UN Security Council.
"Those were delicate conditions and there was no time for
consultations... Those who claim that a parliamentary session
should have been called are either manipulating or do not know what
they are saying," Picula said.
He stressed that the Vilnius Group statement was not a war
statement, but a form of pressure on Iraq to fulfil obligations from
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 and thus prevent war.
(hina) it sb