Mideast Violence Helped Push Europeans to Back U.S.
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
Published: October 16, 2003
nytimes.com
RUSSELS, Oct. 16 — France and Germany decided to join Russia today in support of the United Nations resolution on the future of Iraq out of concern over a spiral of violence in the Middle East, along with a sense that few if any further concessions could be wrung from a reluctant Bush administration.*
* They folded like cheap lawn furniture in the face of US RESOLVE...
Officials accompanying Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and President Jacques Chirac of France, who are attending a summit meeting of European leaders, said an important step came on Monday, when the leaders agreed in a first conference call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to send the United States a last set of amendments to the resolution. The amendments went largely unheeded, and the resolution passed the Security Council today in a vote of 15 to 0.
"We all see a spiral of violence and terror that is growing in Iraq," the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, told reporters at today's summit meeting. Noting the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East as a whole, he said it was important to "send a message to the Iraqi people that we also want the best conditions for the reconstruction of Iraq."
After reviewing modest changes to the resolution text, the three leaders agreed in a second conference call early today to vote for its adoption, but only after expressing serious reservations that render its impact to some extent symbolic.
Mr. Schröder, announcing the decision at a news conference, said he had agreed with Mr. Putin and Mr. Chirac to authorize a statement to accompany the resolution in which the three countries declared their unwillingness to help militarily, and to limit financial aid to what had already been agreed upon.
Mr. Schröder acknowledged American progress in improving the text of the resolution, but added that, "in our view, this progress does not yet constitute the reaction appropriate to the current situation in Iraq."
The view prevailing here appeared to be that today's decision was simply one step in a continuing process of negotiation that was by no means ended.
One official involved in the deliberations said the latest version of the resolution failed to fully satisfy the three leaders, who had agreed in their phone call on Monday to coordinate any response. "Of course, the United States remained in its old logic, though we had some improvement," the official said. "So we had a choice: one, to say thanks, but it's not enough; or two, you're trying, its a step, there will be further steps."
The official said the decision came not with enthusiasm, but to encourage the United States to take further steps. The official said the overall slide into violence in the Middle East, including the recent Israel air attack on Syria and the bombing of an American convoy in the Gaza Strip, heightened the sense of urgency. Mr. Villepin said the three leaders "want to encourage the American government to go on."
General frustration with the situation in Israel and the occupied territories was reflected in an unusually blunt condemnation of Yasir Arafat by the Danish foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller. "There is no doubt in my mind that Arafat is not doing enough," he said, adding, "I realize that Arafat is very sorry about what is happening — then he has to change the system."
German and French officials emphasized that they would send delegates to the Iraq donors' conference in Madrid next week. But Mr. Schröder said that the three leaders had agreed they were "not in a position to engage ourselves militarily or beyond that, with material support."
Dimitri V. Trenin, senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Mr. Putin urged France and Germany to be conciliatory to assure Russia "a slice of the oil pie, but also to bolster Russian authority within the Security Council."
He added, "Their position in the world is conditioned by Russia's role as a a member." |
