EUROPE: Support grows in Europe for military action against
Iraq By Judy Dempsey in Elsinore, Denmark
Financial Times; Sep 02, 2002
A growing number of European countries would consider
supporting US military action against Iraq - but only when
Washington exhausted all other options at the United Nations
Security Council.
The shift among European Union foreign ministers meeting in
Elsinore in Denmark at the weekend was the first clear signal to
Washington that several of the large countries, apart from
Germany, could eventually support military action provided the
Bush administration had explored all possibilities in the UN.
The shift among the Europeans also throws down the gauntlet to
Washington.
"If the US wants any kind of military or political support from its
European allies, then it will have to go through the UN," said one
EU diplomat. "That means arguing the case and proving why a
military attack against Iraq is necessary."
Per Stig Moller, foreign minister of Denmark, current head of the
EU's rotating presidency, also called on the US to step up
consultations with its allies. Diplomats said that implied a need
for the US to set out the reasons, strategy and goals for any
military attack on Iraq for EU support.
Other EU foreign ministers kept pressing home the need to exert
maximum influence on the Bush administration to seek legitimacy
through the UN. Otherwise, they said, it would be impossible to
garner any kind of support from an already highly sceptical public
in Europe about the need for military strikes against Iraq.
This emerging consensus came after one of the first real debates
that has taken place among the Europeans over ways to respond to
the Bush administration's apparent determination to oust Saddam
Hussein, whether unilaterally or through a pre-emptive strike.
All the ministers agreed that Iraq should comply with all UN
Security Council resolutions, that weapons inspectors should be
allowed to return as soon as possible without any conditions and
that weapons of mass destruction posed a threat.
None of the 15 countries, not even Britain, believed a military
attack on Iraq should be used simply to replace the regime of Mr
Hussein, or that any kind of unilateral or pre-emptive action
should be carried out.
Instead, the deepest dividing line among the Europeans was
between Germany and Britain, with Joschka Fischer, German
foreign minister, representing a fundamentalist stance opposed to
any military pressure or strike against Iraq. Jack Straw, his UK
counterpart, argued the case for using the military threat to keep
the pressure on Mr Hussein to allow back the inspectors.
"If the weapons inspectors are allowed back and fully able to do
their job, any necessity of military action would not be needed,"
said Mr Straw. In any case, he told ministers, the threat posed by
Mr Hussein had become greater - a view rejected by Mr Fischer.
The German foreign minister argued that any military action
against Iraq could plunge the region into instability, pitting the
Arab world against the Europeans as much as against the US.
But Dominique de Villepin, France's foreign minister, moved
closer to London - and implicitly to Washington. He suggested it
was up to the UN Security Council "to examine all options,
including the military one".
France, as a member of the Security Council, knows it would play
a pivotal role if the debate over Iraq became a military issue.
Britain also received support from Spain's new foreign minister,
Ana Palacio, and from Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the new Dutch
foreign minister.
Germany received only mooted or qualified support, mostly from
the small and neutral countries.
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