DRESDEN (Germany), Sept 4: France and Germany on Thursday rejected a US proposal for a UN resolution seeking international help in Iraq, saying the proposals did not yield enough responsibility to Iraqis or to the United Nations.
Facing almost daily casualties in Iraq, Washington said on Wednesday it intended to table a new UN resolution aimed at getting more countries to contribute soldiers and cash to its occupation. But it insists on full US military control and a dominant political role.
As the US seeks to draw other countries into Iraq, the new Iraqi foreign minister said troops from Turkey would not be welcome.
In remarks that risk reinflaming the diplomatic wrangling that upset transatlantic relations before the invasion, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the US draft in its current form was not acceptable.
“We are very, very far removed from having a resolution in front of us which we can agree to,” said Mr Chirac.
“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,” the French president said after talks with Mr Schroeder in the German town of Dresden.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell was quick to dismiss the Franco-German objections, insisting the draft met their concerns.
Mr Powell said the resolution was better than anything France or Germany had proposed.
“I think 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,” the secretary of state said after meeting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. “If they have suggestions, we’d be more than happy to listen to those suggestions.”
The German chancellor said the proposals showed movement in the US position but did not go far enough. He said that while France and Germany opposed the US-led invasion, they now wanted to help bring stability and democracy to the country.
“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 Schroeder said.
STATEMENTS IRK POWELL: Colin Powell said he had not fully reviewed Mr Chirac’s and Mr Schroeder’s statements, but appeared irked that neither leader had presented specific improvements to the resolution.
Mr Powell said the US plan to allow the Iraqis to set their own timetable for democratizing is preferable to what he said appeared to be a Franco-German idea of imposing a timeframe from outside—Reuters