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Germany "wonât help" in Iraq except through the UN
Germany stepped up pressure on the United States to hand control of postwar Iraq to the United Nations on Thursday, calling with Japan for a U.N. resolution and saying it will only help rebuild Iraq under U.N. leadership. "Germany can and will contribute to the reconstruction if this happens under the auspices of the United Nations," Schroeder told German TV channel RTL. Germany's constitution forbade it from acting under any other authority, he said.
| Then don't. Just piss off. Go write a memo or something. |
Separately, the German and Japanese foreign ministers, Joschka Fischer and Yoriko Kawaguchi, said after a meeting in Berlin the United Nations should agree a resolution on rebuilding Iraq. "I think that the legitimacy of the United Nations and coming U.N. resolutions would be best and necessary," Fischer said. "Japan has a very important role in the international discussion and in bringing the positions together." U.S. President George W. Bush and his main war ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have said they see a "vital" U.N. role in Iraq when fighting ends. But their plans may fall short of the desires of anti-war France, Germany and Russia.
| Oh, come now. Somebody's got to clean the toilets. |
A U.S.-led civil administration has started work in Iraq headed by retired U.S. General Jay Garner, prompting deep Arab suspicion about Washington's motives and widespread calls that the United Nations be given the job instead. "We will have to see what is meant by 'vital' role," Schroeder said. "I think if you want stability in the region and lasting peace one needs the United Nations and my impression is that this is also in the interests of the Americans and British."
But if you want it done right, you have to keep the UN's hands tied. We've seen this over and over and over and...
He declined to say whether Germany would provide any peacekeeping troops, noting that the country's military resources were already stretched by operations in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Schroeder also said it was "a bit macabre" to start talking now about contracts to rebuild Iraq and that such matters were up to a future democratically elected Iraqi government.
Germany's diplomatic push comes ahead of a meeting in St Petersburg with fellow war opponents Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac at the weekend. Schroeder is also due to meet Blair in Hanover, northern Germany, on Tuesday to discuss the outcome of the St Petersburg meeting, Iraq, and European security and defence policy. Schroeder, whose opposition to war in Iraq has hurt German relations with the United States, had struck a conciliatory note last week, saying piously for the first time he hoped U.S.-led forces would topple Saddam Hussein as quickly as possible. He has also stressed the St Petersburg meeting was routine and "directed against no one". But he reiterated on Thursday he remained opposed to the war even after Wednesday's scenes of jubilation by residents of Baghdad as Saddam's rule crumbled. "This was always going to end in a military victory for the allied forces and that was to be wished for. But one mustn't forget that war always claims many victims and that this one claimed a lot of victims too."
| Germany among them. Or at least Schroeder. |
Germany opposed the U.S.-led war because it did not have the backing of the United Nations and, in Germany's opinion, there was still a chance of a peaceful resolution to the crisis, Schroeder said.
The Germans are still trying to muscle the entire Iraqi situation into the UN, so they and France can be the "guiding authority". I pray that Bush and Blair, along with the leaders of Spain, Portugal, Australia, Czech Republic, and our other allies work together to prevent this potential disaster from taking place.
Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-04-10 |
