US and G8 allies clash on Iraq handover

US and G8 allies clash on Iraq handover
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Financial Times Published: May 14 2004

The US and its allies in the Group of Eight developing countries on Friday clashed openly over Iraq, as foreign ministers argued about how much authority the proposed interim government would exercise after the June 30 transfer of sovereignty.

Pre-war transatlantic tensions surfaced again, with the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Canada all telling a Washington news conference that their countries would not send troops to Iraq even if their demands were to be met in a UN Security Council Resolution.

"There will be no French troops in Iraq, not tomorrow, nor later," Michel Barnier declared.

All the ministers agreed on one issue: that the coalition powers would pull out their forces if the new, as yet unformed, Iraqi government asked them to.

Colin Powell, US secretary of state, said he was "losing absolutely no sleep" over that hypothesis, and Britain's Jack Straw said no one believed an abrupt withdrawal would help Iraq.

The ministers had met to prepare for the G8 summit to be hosted by the US next month. But most of their time was spent discussing a new UN resolution for Iraq.

"Nothing is easy," Javier Solana, European Union foreign policy chief, conceded. But he predicted common language would eventually be found in a resolution to support the interim government that Lakhdar Brahimi, the special UN envoy, is trying to put together by the end of this month.

The day-long talks, which also covered a US initiative to encourage reforms in the "greater" Middle East as well as the latest Israeli incursions into Gaza, agreed on little of substance, another European official said.

"There's no leadership," he commented, noting that so many major issues were left hanging by the US while waiting for Mr Brahimi to find acceptable Iraqis to govern, and Arab League leaders to hold their summit this month on regional reforms.

On Iraq, Mr Powell said the US wanted to give as much authority to the new government "as it can handle". But it would have to yield some authority as Iraqi military forces would report to the proposed multinational force under US command. There would be also be other instances of "yielding some sovereignty", he added without elaborating.

The interim government would be "fully knowledgeable" about US military operations, Mr Powell explained, but the US commander would "be free to take the decisions he believes are appropriate to accomplish his mission".

Mr Barnier responded that there should be "a clear break with the past" in the move from occupation to a sovereign government "with the trappings and hard facts of sovereignty". But he appeared to leave some room for manoeuvre when he said the Iraqi government should have "some kind of authority" over its military forces.

Russia's Sergey Lavrov said the government must be "truly sovereign".

President George W. Bush met the foreign ministers in the White House and urged them to put past differences behind them.

With its forces stretched to the limit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US is once again hoping that a new UN resolution lending legitimacy to a caretaker government will lead to fresh offers of peacekeeping troops, perhaps from such countries as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Diplomats are sceptical that the US will find relief until what Mr Barnier described as a "fully legitimate" government comes to office in Iraq after the first elections, planned for January 2005.