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Russia's stress on resolution

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW DEC. 23. Russia will cooperate with the U. S. on Iraq as long as Washington abides by the U.N. resolutions, but will not go along with an American war against Iraq.

``We have a common base-resolution 1441, on which we must jointly work with the U.S. to attain the goals set forth by the U.N. Security Council, making sure Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction,'' the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, said in a TV political talk show on Sunday night. "If somebody is pursuing other goals, this runs counter to our interests.''

Mr. Ivanov ruled out Russia's joining of a U.S. campaign against Iraq.

``There is no goal, is there, for the sake of which Russia may join a military operation against Iraq?'' the Foreign Minister asked rhetorically.

Meanwhile, a senior Russian diplomat said Russia was satisfied that Iraq was cooperating with international weapon inspectors.

``There are no complaints that Iraqis are hampering the work of inspectors,'' the Deputy Foreign Minister, Georgy Mamedov, said in an interview on Monday.

He said that during the Russian-American summit in St. Petersburg last month, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had bluntly asked the U.S President, George W. Bush: "Do you want Iraq inspections to provide a pretext for attack'' — "No,'' Mr. Bush replied. "We want to disarm Iraq preferably by peaceful means.

"It is important that such a responsible statement was made by the seniormost U.S. official,'' Mr. Mamedov said.

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