DRESDEN, Germany, 5 September 2003 — The leaders of Germany and France said yesterday that a US draft resolution seeking troops and money from all nations to rebuild postwar Iraq does not give the United Nations a large enough role in postwar Iraq and falls far short of the goal of turning over political responsibility to the Iraqi people.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac, both ardent opponents of the war in Iraq, said they would coordinate their positions on the US draft resolution, circulated Wednesday, and hoped that the United States would be open to changes. France holds veto power in the UN Security Council.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted the US resolution addressed the concerns raised by the two countries in the past, but said Washington was open to additional suggestions.
“I don’t sense from their statement that they said what exactly they are looking for, or who they would turn it over to if we were turning it over right away,” Powell told reporters at a press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
“The resolution is drafted in a way that deals with the concerns that leaders such as President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder have raised in the past, and if they have suggestions, we’d be more than happy to listen to their suggestions,” Powell said.
Both France and Germany are particularly adamant that the United States cede control of the political process in Iraq. Under the draft, Washington would not give up political or military control.
“We are naturally ready to study it in the most positive manner. But we are quite far removed from what we believe is the priority objective, which is the transfer of political responsibility to an Iraqi government as quickly as possible,” Chirac told reporters.
The two leaders discussed Iraq over lunch after touring the Old Masters gallery at Dresden’s 18th-century Zwinger Palace — reopened after being partly swamped in flooding last year.
“Now is the time the to look forward, and that can only happen if the United Nations can take responsibility for the political process,” Schroeder said.
He said the US draft resolution had brought “movement” into the diplomacy. But he added, “I agree with the president when he says: Not dynamic enough, not sufficient.”
Chirac said he believed any vote on a US resolution was still some time away.
“This resolution will the object of discussions,” he said. “We will certainly have the occasion to present modification and amendments. That’s where we stand now.”
Russia, another country that opposed the US and Britain going to war in Iraq, however sent a strong signal that it may break ranks with its former allies. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Moscow might send peacekeepers to Iraq as part of an international force.
“Outright, I do not reject it or rule it out,” Ivanov said in televised comments during military maneuvers in the southern Astrakhan region, when asked whether Moscow might contribute peacekeepers to Iraq. “It all depends on the specific resolution,” the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
But there was resistance to deployment of foreign forces in Iraq from another quarter. Iraq’s newly appointed foreign minister said his government would not welcome peacekeeping forces from neighboring countries such as Turkey as this could lead to more instability. Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari was speaking to Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera.
Asked about a possible Turkish role in the peacekeeping force, Zebari said: “Our neighboring countries have their own political agendas, which they could bring with them to Iraq, thus causing more instability in Iraq.” Turkey said Wednesday it would soon begin technical discussions with the Americans on a possible deployment in Iraq.
