Bush To Blair: No Lead Role For UN In Iraq

by Stefania Bianchi

France has demanded that the United Nations take over from Britain and the U.S. once the fighting has stopped. The French demand came just hours after a meeting between President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Northern Ireland.

French President Jacques Chirac insisted that the role of building the war-torn country was "a matter for the United Nations and for it alone." The UN should "take on the political, economic, humanitarian and administrative reconstruction of Iraq," he said.

President Bush met Blair in Belfast earlier to discuss the UN role in post-war Iraq. Bush made moves to amend a rift with Britain, conceding that the UN must play a "vital role" in rebuilding the country. Blair proposed that the UN should give its approval to a three-stage process in which Iraq will move from military rule to a representative government.

Blair and Bush put out a joint statement outlining plans to create a broad-based interim government in Baghdad.

"As the coalition proceeds with the reconstruction of Iraq, it will work with its allies, bilateral donors and with the United Nations and other international institutions," they said. "The United Nations has a vital role to play in the reconstruction of Iraq."

The plans fall short of a lead role for the UN envisaged by British diplomats, but they were enough to enable Blair to keep his promise about UN participation.

Chirac's statement after the meeting dashed Blair's declared hope that the bitter diplomatic wrangling of recent months would now end.

"We are no longer in an era where one or two countries can control the fate of another country," the French President said in Paris.

Chirac said he welcomed the promise of a significant role for the UN, but said this should mean that the UN should oversee the post-Saddam era.

Late Tuesday night British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin were in urgent talks to bridge the latest rift left by Chriac's comments.

Straw insisted that the UK and France had a "grown up relationship," but accepted that sometimes the two countries "have different perspectives."

Straw was optimistic, however, about their future relationship. "It would be boring if friends always agreed," Straw said. "This is a grown up relationship. Of course we sometimes have different perspectives on issues, and so what?"

Straw said: "What is important is that we work those through and we show a higher agreement. Everybody knows there has been some difference of opinions on Iraq, but there is a huge range of issues on the agenda where we are almost exactly in the same place."

In another worrying development for the British and U.S. leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would meet Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in St. Petersburg over the weekend. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is also due to attend the meeting.

The move was announced as the UN warned the U.S. and Britain that Iraq was not a treasure chest to be divided up after the war. Shashi Tharoor, the UN under-secretary general, said that the coalition had no rights under international law to engage in reconstruction without UN consent.

"It is not a case of dividing up the spoils of conquest," he said. "The only thing that matters, ultimately, is the right of the Iraqi people to determine their own future."

Secretary of State Colin Powell had at first swept aside demands from European leaders in Brussels last week that the UN take a leading role in the post-war settlement in Iraq. But he initiated a positive dialogue between feuding countries in the European Union.

Following a series meetings with ministers and top diplomats, Powell said Washington wanted a "partnership" with the UN in reconstructing Iraq, but stressed that the U.S. and it allies who had been involved in the fighting would make the key decisions.

Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels last Thursday, Powell said: "We are still examining the proper role for the UN. When we succeed and look down the road to a better life for the Iraqi people to rebuild their society after these decades of devastation wrought by Saddam Hussein, the coalition has to play the lead role in determining the way forward."

Powell added that the U.S. would work rapidly to establish an interim authority and that the responsibility for the authority would be passed on to the Iraqis "as soon as possible."

The refusal by Germany, France and Belgium to defend fellow NATO member Turkey in the event of an attack by Iraq triggered a crisis within the EU and NATO last month. The rift widened after that, with a number of EU members voicing their objections to the war.

Now it appears that the latest round of international talks has reignited the smouldering diplomatic fire.