 Despite intense U.S. pressure, Chirac threatened to veto, at that given point, a resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would authorize the use of military force to rid Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction, and rallied other governments to his position.Russia, another permanent UN Security Council member, said it, too, would use its veto against such a resolution, (cf.Governments' pre-war positions on invasion of Iraq and Protests against the 2003 Iraq war).