President Jacques Chirac on Sunday called for the immediate transfer of sovereignty in Iraq to the Iraqi people and indicated that France would only approve a new United Nations resolution that recognized this need. In an hour-long interview at the Elysée Palace, Chirac for the first time laid out a two-stage plan for Iraqi self-rule involving first a symbolic transfer of sovereignty from American hands to the existing 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, followed by the gradual ceding of real power over the next six to nine months. The French president added that if the Security Council, France included, could agree on empowering Iraqis at once, France would be ready to train Iraqi police and soldiers - either in or out of Iraq. And Chirac, who opposed America's war in Iraq, said that although France had no intention of sending troops to participate in the American-led military occupation force, circumstances could change.
"There will be no concrete solution unless sovereignty is transferred to Iraq as quickly as possible," Chirac said, speaking just before he departed for New York, where he will meet with President George W. Bush on Tuesday. He called the administration of Iraq, an Arab and Muslim country, by a "governor who is Christian and foreign" dangerous and "a very difficult situation for any people to accept in the 21st century." As for the deployment of French combat troops to Iraq, Chirac said, "We are talking about training, and not sending troops to Iraq, of course."
But at another point, he was less categorical, saying, "As things are now, there is no situation where I can imagine that France would send troops to Iraq," adding, however, "Everything could change. I don't have a crystal ball. But for the moment, this is the position of France and the position of a number of countries." It is not clear whether Chirac intended to hold out the possibility of deploying French troops, however slight, as a means of negotiating a resolution more palatable to France. The United States has already ruled out any plan to strip the current American administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer 3rd, of his power, saying that a hasty transition to Iraqis would be counterproductive and dangerous. Britain, America's main ally in the war, has expressed similar concerns.
The sharp divergence between the United States and France over the management of post-war Iraq reflects both the scars of a year-long conflict between two old allies and their profoundly different visions of the place of American power and the role of the United Nations in the world. Chirac made clear on Sunday that he did not intend to veto the pending U.S.-sponsored resolution unless it somehow became "provocative." "I have no intention of opposing the resolution, that is, saying 'no,' vetoing it," he said. "I am not in that mind-set at all." But France will vote in favor of the resolution only if it includes a precise deadline for the transfer of sovereignty, a timetable for the transfer of actual power and a "key role" for the UN, although he did not spell out what that would be, he said. Otherwise, he added, France will abstain.
Chirac's proposal suggested that it would be difficult for the two sides to agree on the wording of a resolution introduced this month by the Bush administration in an attempt to secure the United Nations blessing necessary to attract more foreign troops and more international funds to Iraq. While Chirac wants to get power in Iraq out of American hands at least symbolically by a transfer of sovereignty, the Bush administration argues that the Iraqis are not ready and that the only beneficiaries of a quick handover of any authority would be former Iraqi exiles who are politically active but enjoy little support among the Iraqi people. And whereas Chirac believes that the continued governance of Iraq by the United States will produce more violence and require a longer presence of foreign troops, the United States believes that the relinquishing of any authority will create more chaos. Still, Chirac seemed eager to appear conciliatory, saying twice said that whenever American soldiers are killed in Iraq, "It hurts us," and rejecting any suggestion that the aim of his proposal was to provoke the United States. "I want you to understand that I'm not saying 'white' because the Americans say 'black,'" he declared. Rather, he said, his goal was to engineer in Iraq a system similar to that already functioning in Afghanistan, where the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, has full sovereignty over the country, while the United States and its coalition partners keep the peace through the presence of their troops.
"I am not inventing anything extraordinary, as I have read somewhere, simply to annoy the United States," Chirac said of his ideas for what he described as an increasingly dangerous situation in Iraq. In an indication that France's negotiating position is fluid, Chirac refused to articulate a precise timetable for Iraqi self-rule except to say that sovereignty should be transferred as quickly as possible. Last week, however, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin laid out a plan under which Iraq would establish a provisional government in a month, write a constitution by the end of the year and hold elections next spring, all under UN auspices. The U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, quickly dismissed de Villepin's proposal as "totally unrealistic."
Chirac is also seeking to avoid a repetition of the diplomatic fiasco in March, when he went on national television nine days before the war began to say that France would veto any United Nations resolution paving the way to war. That declaration contributed to Washington's failure to get a resolution justifying the war, damaged France's relationship with the Bush administration and sparked outrage among the American people. Even if France abstains, the United States is likely to receive the nine votes necessary to pass the resolution. Chirac said that France would be willing to provide financial support and military and police training for Iraq once sovereignty is transferred to the Iraqis.
Although Chirac was relaxed and spoke easily throughout most of the interview, the subject of post-war Iraq was so sensitive that he referred to type-written talking points highlighted in yellow when he spoke about it. Chirac took exception with the Bush administration's conviction that the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would provide the catalyst for the spread of peace and democracy in the Middle East. "I'd like to think so, but frankly, I don't believe so," he said, calling the war "traumatic for this region and culture." Despite his insistence on a quick, symbolic transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis, Chirac stated paradoxically that elections had to be handled with care, because the majority of Iraqis belong to the Shiite branch of Islam. "Are the Shiites in this analysis the real symbol of tomorrow's democracy?" he asked. "It is not so obvious."
Chirac confessed that his own experience as an officer in France's colonial war in Algeria had influenced his thinking about Iraq, because it proved to him that a vast and powerful army could be defeated by a small group of determined adversaries convinced of the right to run their own country. "We know from experience that imposing a law on people from the outside hasn't worked for a long time," he said. The French president defended his position before the war that United Nations weapons inspectors should have been given more time to complete their work before war was waged. He noted that no weapons of mass destruction had been found inside Iraq, which the Bush administration used as the main justification for going to war. Chirac said that it was "absolutely not" wrong to overthrow Hussein, but added that he should have been overthrown "without a war."
Asked whether he had been tempted to tell Bush, "You were wrong," he replied, "On subjects as complex as this, it is always wrong to think that you are right and the other person is always necessarily wrong. This is a serious mistake and you always pay the consequences." Chirac defended his outburst last February when he berated Central and Eastern European countries poised to join the European Union for missing an opportunity to "keep quiet" when they signed letters supporting American policy in Iraq before the war. "I don't regret it; I should regret it, but I don't," he said, adding, "You can take your own position if you want to. That's not the problem. But at least warn us first so we don't look ridiculous." Such an approach, he said, is "not the way that Europe is made."
Chirac also defended the concept of a common European defense policy outside of the framework of the NATO alliance, a development that the United States strongly opposes. "There is nothing unpleasant about it for the Americans," he said. "It suggests ignorance of the way things are to imagine it would be against them." Chirac cited America's insistence that Europe take charge of keeping the peace in the Balkans, and said, "We can do this, but how? With a flute?" |