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Paris meeting calls for U.N. role
PARIS, France -- France, Germany and Russia have restated their belief that the U.N. should have a key role in rebuilding Iraq after the war. While recognizing the U.S. and Britain had a special role to play in securing Iraq once the military operation was over their participation should not go beyond that, the three countries said. "In the armed phase, in the securing phase, the primary responsibility obviously is that of the coalition forces on the ground," French Foreign Minister Dominique de villepin told a news conference Friday. "Beyond that, the United Nations must play a central role in solving the Iraqi crisis." Villepin was meeting with Joschka Fischer and Igor Ivanov in Paris Friday, in a move observers says is designed to show unity in their push for a central U.N. role in Iraq. Leaders from Paris, Moscow and Berlin had been among the most vocal opponents of a U.S.-led war in Iraq, calling for a diplomatic solution through the U.N. Security Council. France had threatened to use its veto in the Security Council to block any resolution authorizing a military attack. Russia's Ivanov was quoted by Reuters as saying Friday: "It is clear that this war must finish, and the sooner the better for everyone, including the United States. "To talk about any clear schemes of reconstruction for Iraq is at the very least premature." Villepin also warned against premature speculation on the issue of contracts to companies to rebuild a post-Saddam Iraq. He was quoted by The Associated Press as saying: "The idea that Iraq can be an El Dorado, a cake that states can cut up and share doesn't appear to me to be good sense." The meeting came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell went to a NATO meeting in Brussels -- the first time he had visited Europe after the start of the military conflict. (Full Story) Powell had acknowledged the U.N. should be a partner in the rebuilding after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but failed to mention specifics. France, in an attempt to heal the Anglo-Franco rift caused by the Iraq war, supported London's move towards a Mideast peace plan. Villepin called for the publication and application of the so-called roadmap, drawn up by the international quartet, which provides for a Palestinian state.
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