Leaders push for key UN role in Iraq

The leaders of Russia, France and Germany today called for the United Nations to play a central role in rebuilding Iraq, and French President Jacques Chirac signalled his desire to mend damaged relations with the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted President Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at a hastily-arranged summit in Russia’s northern city of St. Petersburg for talks dominated by the Iraq crisis.

Today they opened a seminar on security and international law.

“Once the necessary security has been restored, the United Nations should play a central role in ensuring that Iraq regains its sovereignty and that the Iraqi people recover their dignity and their freedom,” Chirac said at the start of the seminar.

“There can be no lasting international order based on the logic of power.”

Schroeder said the United Nations was crucial for bringing ”legitimacy” to post-war reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

“We must use the United Nations’ experience in this country,” the chancellor said. “The legitimacy of the restoration of the state and economic structures can be ensured only through international law.”

Chirac, Schroeder and Putin led the diplomatic opposition to the US-led military campaign in Iraq, and their nations’ relations with the United States soured. But Chirac said today that he was not displeased by the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“Condemnation of the dictatorship was never the issue. France and all other democracies welcome its fall,” Chirac said. “Our dispute was about how to manage the world and its crises, particularly (the) proliferation crisis.”

He also signalled a desire to mend ties with the United States.

“We can rebuild our unity around the values that all great democracies share. This spirit of solidarity and collective responsibility should emerge strengthened from this crisis,” Chirac said.

Putin said he agreed with Chirac and Schroeder on the need for a strong UN role in Iraq, but also called for reform of the United Nations and of international law.

“In recent times, many shortcomings of the existing international law system and serious contradictions have emerged, which create a serious potential for conflict,” Putin said. “It is important that this organisation has sufficient instruments for solving global problems of international policy and security.”

On Friday, Putin said that post-war Iraq should follow the model established in Afghanistan: first an international conference under UN auspices, then an interim administration responsible for preparing elections, and finally the elections themselves.