Allies Cool to Striking Baghdad

As the U.S. saber rattles in the direction of Iraq, European allies are making their own noise in opposition to war and are insisting that any military action against Baghdad be endorsed first by the United Nations.

A day after German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder put Washington on notice that his country’s solidarity in the war against terrorism won’t extend to “adventures,” Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called Tuesday for “different priorities” to replace invasion in the global search for security and peace.

The German leadership’s push for a more pacifist approach to ensuring that Iraq cannot make or use weapons of mass destruction could be seen as political posturing, as Schroeder this week put his troubled campaign for reelection into full throttle.

But in Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair has already hinted that he will support whatever action against Iraq is deemed necessary by U.S. allies, an influential phalanx of religious leaders and laymen is urging Blair to oppose military intervention.

“It is our considered view that an attack on Iraq would be both immoral and illegal, and that eradicating the dangers posed by malevolent dictators and terrorists can be achieved only by tackling the root causes of the disputes themselves,” a group of clergy said in a declaration delivered to Blair’s 10 Downing Street office Tuesday.

The appeal from the Christian peace movement Pax Christi was signed by nearly 3,000 people across the religious spectrum, including the new head of the Anglican Church and archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

“It is deplorable that the world’s most powerful nations continue to regard war and the threat of war as an acceptable instrument of foreign policy, in violation of the ethos of both the United Nations and Christian moral teachings,” the document said.

Other European politicians and social groups have also been grumbling loudly that the White House may move to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein without support or authorization from the U.N. Security Council. President Bush has stepped up his rhetoric calling for a “regime change” in Baghdad in recent weeks, and Congress last week opened hearings on the rationale and risks of an Iraq invasion.

In addition, a senior White House official said the administration believes that one of the Sept. 11 hijackers had ties to Iraq, despite CIA and FBI doubts about any such link.

Proof of such a tie would bolster the case against Iraq.

French President Jacques Chirac said during a visit to Germany last week that he could back a strike on Iraq only if it had advance Security Council approval. Though U.S. and British officials dismissed as a stalling technique Baghdad’s recent proposal for U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix to visit for talks, France has urged the United Nations to pursue the offer in the hopes that it can help get U.N. teams back into Iraq to ensure that Hussein is no longer producing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

“I don’t want to imagine an attack against Iraq, an attack that could not be justified unless it is decided by the Security Council,” Chirac said after meeting with Schroeder. “That is the position of Germany; that is the position of France.”

French foreign policy and public opinion often clash with those of the United States on fundamental issues such as the Middle East, the death penalty and global warming. Especially on the left of the political spectrum, the prospect of a U.S. war on Iraq draws vigorous resistance in France.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, both conservatives, have been silent on the Iraqi face-off for the moment, perhaps mindful of the powerful pacifist movements within their predominantly Roman Catholic electorates.

Iraqi neighbors Jordan and Turkey are warning about potential threats to Middle East stability if Baghdad is attacked. Jordanian Prime Minister Ali abu Ragheb told visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel on Tuesday that such an assault would have “disastrous economic and human consequences” for the entire region.

“We certainly agree with the Jordanian position and share the same concerns. We feel every problem in the region should be settled through peaceful means,” said Gurel, whose country is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is seeking to join the European Union.

Reservations about U.S. policy on Iraq have become particularly serious among Germans and Britons, with popular sentiment in both countries measurably opposed to any further military commitments.

Since World War II left their country a pariah in economic shambles, Germans have regarded foreign interventions with trepidation. The Social Democrats, led by Schroeder, and their allies, the pacifist, environmentalist Greens, are trailing conservative challengers on economic issues. But the chancellor’s bow to voters’ desire for “a special German way” in fulfilling NATO obligations is striking a chord with a population largely fearful of the economic and moral costs of another war.

“I believe that different priorities are needed here, like solving regional conflicts and the fight against terrorism,” Fischer, a Greens member, told journalists as he began a 45-day campaign swing through 90 German towns. “For me, a European position is of central significance.”

At a weekend rally in his hometown of Hanover, Schroeder said: “I can only warn against discussing a war in Iraq without thinking about the consequences and without having a political concept for the whole Middle East.”

In their issues published Monday, the major German newsmagazines Der Spiegel and Focus both cast Bush’s stance on Iraq as a vendetta against Hussein, whom Bush’s father failed to depose during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

In Britain, lawmakers from Blair’s Labor Party have been urging the prime minister to recall Parliament from its summer recess to debate the wisdom of military action against Iraq.

From a hotel in Baghdad, Labor legislator and anti-war activist George Galloway told reporters Tuesday that he planned to talk with Iraqi leaders and meet peace campaigners.

He said the Pax Christi petition was symptomatic of “an anxiety bordering on panic around the world over the fact that we may be sleepwalking into a catastrophic situation.”

The British public has been sounded out too. Polls commissioned by independent Channel 4 News on Monday showed that 52% oppose British military cooperation with the U.S. over Iraq.

NATO defense ministers are to meet next month amid several European election campaigns, pushing the Iraq issue onto political agendas in member countries. That may highlight disagreements among the allies, not only over a potential strike against Baghdad but also over continued participation in peacekeeping and anti-terror deployments such as those in the Balkans and Afghanistan.

Janet Stobart in The Times’ London Bureau contributed to this report.