Germany Announces New Shift Away From U.S. Over Iraq
nytimes.com
BERLIN, Aug. 30 — "If the United States attacks Iraq, Germany will pull out its specialized nuclear, chemical and biological warfare unit from Kuwait, the German defense minister said in an interview published today.
The conservative challenger in the electoral fight to be Germany's next chancellor, Edmund Stoiber, said today that he would do the same in the case of a unilateral American attack on Iraq, but only after consultations with European allies.
The new German position marks another shift away from Washington in the heat of a German election campaign that the chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, is trying to turn toward questions of peace rather than unemployment.
The unit, consisting of six specialized Fuchs tanks and 52 soldiers, is designed to detect the use or presence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and then try to destroy them. The unit was sent to Kuwait as part of Germany's contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom, the war on Al Qaeda and the Taliban that followed the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The German Parliament approved the deployment after a bitter debate, and the defense minister, Peter Struck, a former parliamentary leader for the Social Democrats, said that a new American war against Iraq would fall outside that parliamentary mandate and would mean that the unit should be withdrawn.
"If the danger exists that our soldiers could be involved in a conflict situation in Iraq, that would not be covered by the mandate given them by the German lower house, the Bundestag, last November," Mr. Struck told the Berliner Zeitung. "They would then be withdrawn."
Mr. Schröder, in a close and bitter election fight with Mr. Stoiber, has said that Germany would not take part in any war against Iraq or contribute financially to one, even if there was a United Nations Security Council mandate for the war.
That position has annoyed the Bush administration, but is popular with the German public, and it has put Mr. Stoiber on the defensive. The more bellicose the noises coming from Washington, Stoiber party officials say, the more Mr. Schröder looks like a bold man of peace, harming the conservatives.
Mr. Schröder, who pronounced Germany's "unconditional solidarity" with the United States after Sept. 11, has said that an attack on Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein is a different matter entirely.
Six months ago, however, Mr. Schröder reportedly told party officials and parliamentary leaders that a decision to withdraw the Fuchs unit from Kuwait would have bad consequences for German-American relations for many years.
According to a protocol of the private meeting, seen by The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mr. Schröder said no one could be responsible for the consequences "for the German-American relationship over the next 30 to 50 years" if the Fuchs units were withdrawn, and nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons were then used against Kuwait or allied forces.
For that reason, Mr. Schröder reportedly said, the units would remain in Kuwait and could be used there even in the case of "unilateral action" by the United States.
But the tough election campaign has seen Mr. Schröder and his party move sharply to the left, to try to inspire disappointed supporters to go to vote.
Mr. Schröder has been the most outspoken West European leader warning Washington against an attack on Iraq, calling it "an adventure," as Mr. Struck did again today. But the Schröder position is echoed in British and French demands that any attack on Iraq have the mandate of the United Nations and be preceded by further efforts, including a possible deadline, to get Iraq to allow unconditional inspections of its territory by United Nations weapons inspectors.
Mr. Struck also said, "According to our present knowledge there is no concrete threat for us here in Europe emanating from Saddam Hussein," a common German view that contradicts the view of the Bush administration.
Mr. Stoiber said today that he, too, would withdraw the Fuchs units if Iraq were attacked unilaterally.
"Eventually, yes," he said, but he added, "We should coordinate our action, which depends on decisions by the United Nations, above all with the Europeans."
German participation in any attack would only be possible under a United Nations mandate and in consultation with European allies, he said, emphasizing that Germany would not act alone."
Isra-El is not going to be happy about this one bit. They may protest by sending back reparation checks next month! |
