Schroeder: 'Overcome dictatorship'
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Schroeder hopes Iraq war will "come to speedy conclusion."
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BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a persistent opponent of war in Iraq, indicated Thursday he hopes that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime is toppled by the Iraqi people.
In a keynote speech to the German parliament, Schroeder said he hoped "that by overcoming dictatorship that the Iraqi people will have hope to live in peace and freedom and direct their own affairs as soon as possible."
Schroeder also said that he hoped "this war will come to a speedy conclusion to keep the number of victims and casualties as low as possible."
Along with France and Russia, Germany had pursued diplomatic efforts against any U.N. resolution that would have authorized force. They insisted peaceful efforts to disarm Iraq had not been exhausted.
"Up to the last minute, together with a majority in the Security Council, with France, Russia and China, but also with states such as Mexico and Chile, we pursued all efforts within the framework of the United Nations to solve the conflict by peaceful means," Schroeder said.
He said it was "wrong" that the peaceful disarming of Iraq under international control couldn't be achieved.
"But it is true we were not able to prevent this war," he said.
Schroeder reiterated Germany's position against the war, emphasizing that the United Nations "must take on the central role ... when it comes to shaping the future of Iraq."
"In international conflict, we believe in the monopoly of power of the United Nations," Schroeder said. "That is the basis on which Germany has been discharging its responsibility in the European Union, in the international alliance against terrorism."
He stressed that Iraq's oil reserves and the country's other natural resources "must stay ... under the control of the Iraqi people" and be "used to the benefit of the Iraqi people and for the rebuilding of the country and for nothing else."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking Thursday in Brussels after meeting with NATO allies there, said that while the United Nations "must play a role" in postwar Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting the war "has to play a leading role in determining the way forward." (Full story)
