BERLIN, 21 September 2003 — Europe’s three biggest powers tried to mend their rift over Iraq yesterday but disagreed on how fast the United States should hand back sovereignty to the Iraqi people.
“Our views are not quite convergent,” French President Jacques Chirac said after a Berlin summit with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “On the technicalities and timetable, we are still not fully agreed,” the French leader added.
Chirac and Schroeder, fierce opponents of the US-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein, now want a much more influential role for the United Nations and a faster handover of power to Iraqis. “It’s important to give the United Nations a bigger role,” Schroeder said.
France and Germany are both members of the UN Security Council, where Washington is seeking a fresh resolution to persuade other countries to share the financial and military burden of stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq. Chirac restated France’s position that Iraq, now under US administration, must regain sovereignty within months. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has ridiculed the notion that Washington could hand back power overnight.
Blair, by contrast, was keen to stress the common ground between the three leaders.
“We all want to see a stable Iraq. We all want to see Iraq make a transition to democratic government as swiftly as possible. We all want to see, and know there must be, a key role for the United Nations,” he said.
“I think whatever the different positions on the conflict, the entire world has an interest in seeing those things happen. For myself, I am sure that whatever differences there are, they can be resolved, and I am sure they will be.”
