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France germany oppose us plan { September 4 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/international/worldspecial/04CND-REAC.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/international/worldspecial/04CND-REAC.html
September 4, 2003
France and Germany Oppose U.S. Plan for U.N. Role in Iraq
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
BERLIN, Sept. 4 — The leaders of France and Germany, giving their first response to the Bush administration's turn to the United Nations for help in the occupation of Iraq, announced that their countries would not support an American draft of a Security Council resolution that would authorize both an expanded international force and financial help in Iraq.
Meeting in the German city of Dresden today, President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany said the American proposal, circulated to the Security Council on Wednesday, did not go far enough in transferring political control of Iraq to the Iraqis or give the United Nations a strong enough role in the proposed international force.
"We are ready to examine the proposals, but they seem quite far from what appears to us the primary objective, namely the transfer of political responsibility to an Iraqi government as soon as possible," Mr. Chirac said in a joint news conference.
Mr. Schröder, who, like Mr. Chirac, strongly opposed military action in Iraq, said the Bush administration's turn to the United Nations had created new "movement" toward greater international coordination on Iraq. But he added, "I agree with my colleague Mr. Chirac when he says that the proposal does not go far enough and is also not dynamic."
The American draft proposal circulated to Security Council members on Wednesday has not been released, but copies of the text released to reporters indicate that it would essentially transform the United States-led occupation force into a United Nations force. But American officials have made clear that the force would remain under American command even as political authority in Iraq would continue to be vested in the American civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer III.
The French and German statements today were clearly blows against the American effort to enlist United Nations support for the Iraqi occupation while retaining a dominant American role. But they seemed more a prod to the United States to give the United Nation greater authority than an outright rejection of the Bush administration's call for international help.
Mr. Schröder, for example, reiterated recent statements by German officials that they wanted the American effort to rebuild Iraq to succeed.
"We believe that despite of what we thought about the war and the way it was fought, it must now be our goal to create a perspective of stability and democracy for Iraq," Mr. Schröder said. "Such a perspective can only develop if the United Nations takes over responsibility for the political process and if an Iraqi administration is installed."
Mr. Chirac, referring to the American draft proposal, said, "We are naturally ready to study it in the most positive manner."
Speaking in Washington after Mr. Chirac's and Mr. Schröder's statements, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said:
"I think the resolution is drafted in a way that deals with the concerns that leaders such as President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder have raised in the past, and if they have suggestions, we would be more than happy to listen to them."
Mr. Powell expressed puzzlement over the French and German demand that political responsibility be turned over to the Iraqis more quickly.
"I don't see from their statements 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," Mr. Powell said, referring to political authority in Iraq.
In many ways, the statements by Mr. Chirac and Mr. Schröder reprised the debate over Iraq that took place in the months leading to the American-led war to overthrow the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, when both France and Germany demanding that the United Nations have the central role in any military action.
"Everybody wants the U.S. to succeed in Iraq," said Christoph Bertram, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "There is no question about that. But there is also a deep conviction in France and Germany and capitals all over the E.U. that the U.S. government will not succeed in rebuilding Iraq without a much stronger involvement of the United Nations."
"I think Schröder's and Chirac's rejection of the U.S. draft for a new United Nations resolution on Iraq is very clear and not surprising at all," Mr. Bertram said. "They expect the U.S. to end the occupation in Iraq and to transfer the political responsibility to the U.N. and an Iraqi government as soon as possible."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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