Russian, French, German Leaders Push for U.N. Control of Iraq’s Future

The leaders of Russia, France and Germany met here Friday to press the Bush administration to put the United Nations in charge of Iraq’s future.

“The situation we are confronting in Iraq must be resolved as quickly as possible in accordance with the U.N. Charter,” Russian President Vladimir V. Putin said at a joint news conference with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. “The faster we go along the path as set down by international law, the better it will be. The longer we delay a resolution within the U.N. framework, the more it will look like a colonial situation.”

Schroeder’s visit and meeting with Putin had been long planned, but Chirac’s inclusion was a last-minute addition in response to the Iraq situation.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday after their summit in Northern Ireland that the United Nations should play a “vital role” in rebuilding Iraq, but they made clear that did not mean the world body should be in control.

“A vital role for the U.N. means food, that means medicine, that means aid, that means a place where people can give their contributions, that means suggesting people for an interim Iraqi governing body,” Bush said.

On Friday, Chirac said the common goal of France, Russia and Germany “is to create conditions that will give back to the Iraqi people their dignity and an opportunity to be masters of their fate.... The task of restoring the political, economic and social system of Iraq is enormous,” he said, adding that “only the United Nations has the legitimacy to do that.”

“We want this world to be multipolar and to make sure that each pole of it makes well-balanced decisions,” Chirac added.

Schroeder stressed the need for quick humanitarian action. “The coalition forces, judging by the footage of plundering that is taking place in Iraq, should make every possible effort to restore tranquillity and thwart further looting,” he said.

Putin suggested that because chemical and biological weapons have neither been found nor used in Iraq during the current fighting, the entire rationale for the U.S.-led attack has been called into question.

Earlier in the day, speaking at a German-Russian forum with Schroeder at his side, Putin said Saddam Hussein’s regime “does not correspond to the present-day requirements and ideas of human rights and democracy” and “the removal of the tyrannical regime is probably a plus.”

But “such problems should not be solved with the help of war ... because, should we embark on this path, the number of countries that do not meet Western standards of democracy amount to -- I find it hard to say precisely -- about 80%,” Putin said. “So, do we make war on everyone like that? It is only the people of these countries who have the right to determine their own fate.”

At the news conference, Putin expanded on that theme, warning against “the export of capitalist, democratic revolution.”

“If we allow ourselves to do that, the world will end up on a slippery slope toward an endless series of military conflicts. We cannot allow that to happen,” he said.

But Schroeder said one important part of the gap between the two sides can be bridged: “It is important that everything necessary be done to ensure that, now that the dictatorship has fallen, the Iraqi people can live in self-determination. And I think this goal should unite not only those present here tonight.”

The three leaders also responded to a comment made Thursday by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee that France, Germany and Russia could contribute to the reconstruction of Iraq by forgiving the debt owed them by that nation.

“I hope ... they’ll think about the very large debts that come from money that was lent to Saddam Hussein to buy weapons and to build palaces and to build instruments of repression,” Wolfowitz said. “I think they ought to consider whether it might not be appropriate to forgive some or all of that debt so that the new Iraqi government isn’t burdened with it.”

Russia and France are estimated to hold about $8 billion each in Iraqi debt, while Germany is owed about $4.3 billion.

Putin told the news conference that Moscow would be ready for talks on the debt.

“On the whole, the proposal is understandable and legitimate,” he said. “In any event, Russia has no objection to such a proposal.”

Chirac and Schroeder said the issue should be decided within the Paris Club, an informal group of official creditors -- including the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Russia -- that seeks coordinated solutions to the payment problems of debtor nations.