Sunday, May 4, 2003
France, Germany back US plan for Iraq
AP Kastellorizo, May 4
France and Germany, harshest critics of the US-led Iraq war, on Saturday, endorsed without much enthusiasm a US plan to divide Iraq into three zones and deploy a stabilization force that excludes them.
After an EU foreign ministers meeting dominated by debate on the dismal state of trans-Atlantic affairs, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said a stabilization force by a "coalition of the willing" did not diminish Berlin' wish for the United Nations to play a key role in rebuilding Iraq.
"This is not a new situation and is not in contradiction with our discussion about giving the United Nations a role in post-war Iraq," Fischer said after the meeting, held aboard a luxury yacht off a tiny Greek Aegean island. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters that bringing in stabilization troops from countries other than the United States and Britain simply "widens the number of countries on the ground."
The United States said it planned to set up an international force in three regions of Iraq, with Poland and Britain controlling two zones and US forces the third. Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ukraine and Bulgaria would also provide troops.
Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewiczs said ` `this is a fresh responsibility for my country, but we are ready to share it." He attended the meeting because Poland will formally join the EU in May, 2004.
Poland "would prefer" a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the stabilization force, but should be able to go ahead without one, if necessary, Cimoszewiczs said.
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