Smoothsail, Chirac is as loud as ever, this time posturing to keep rebuilding from falling under US and British control.
Chirac expresses regret but offers to help rebuild
By Robert Graham in Paris
Published: March 21 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: March 21 2003 4:00
In a brief, solemn televised speech yesterday, Jacques Chirac expressed France's regret over the start of US-led military operations against Iraq.
But the French president, who has championed the anti-war camp throughout the Iraq crisis, tempered his criticism with an offer to help forge an international consensus on the reconstruction of Iraq. He also said he hoped the conflict would be "as rapid and as least costly in human lives as possible to avoid a humanitarian disaster".
Having been unable to prevent the war through the use of United Nations weapons inspections, Mr Chirac yesterday appeared to recognise the need to find ways of coming to terms with the bitter transatlantic divisions and a bruising row with his EU partners UK and Spain caused by the Iraqi crisis.
"Tomorrow, we must get together with our allies and with the whole international community to assume together the challenges that await us," he said.
However, he was unwilling to concede much ground. Mr Chirac made it clear that he felt Europe had to find its own voice to act as a counterweight to the US. Such a voice, he said, could only be found by agreeing on a common defence policy.
"France is not resigned to the idea that the European project is incomplete," he said. "Europe must realise it needs to express its own vision of world problems and sustain this vision with a credible common defence policy."
He went on to urge France's EU partners, as well as the countries about to join, to work to this end. Such comments coming ahead of yesterday's EU summit in Brussels underlined Mr Chirac's determination to take the lead in this process - and in so doing challenge directly the pro-Atlanticist views of Tony Blair, British prime minister.
Dominique de Villepin, French foreign minister, reinforced Mr Chirac's insistence on the involvement of the UN in the reconstruction of Iraq. "Only the UN has the legitimacy to do a proper job in reconstructing Iraq in the name of the international community and ensuring the unity, integrity and sovereignty of Iraq," he said.
This was a thinly veiled warning against the US imposing a military administration. He also appeared anxious to prevent Washington from controlling a reconstruction process in Iraq that would exclude French business contracts and access to oil concessions.
On the domestic front, the French government said it would allow US and British aircraft to use its airspace. French security forces were also placed on a heightened state of alert against possible terrorist attacks.
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