Iraq pleads for a Marshall Plan
The staid conference room in Brussels could not have seemed further from the bloodstained streets of Baghdad. There, Iraqi leaders pleaded with the world to focus on the human costs of the conflict engulfing their homeland, and to do more to bring peace.
“The children of Iraq are just like yours.
"They don’t want to lose their fathers,” Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in opening remarks to an international conference that concluded with calls for not just cash, but a Marshall Plan-style commitment to help those most vulnerable among Iraq’s citizens.
The UN, the European Union, the US and more than 80 other nations pledged their support, while saying Iraq could also do more to help itself.
No new money was offered at a meeting that was never intended as a donors’ conference, but the gathering was applauded as proof that sharp differences over the US-led invasion of Iraq could be put aside to help Iraqis.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was sure the meeting would have a direct effect on the lives of Iraqis.
“I hope that what the Iraqi people feel and touch is yes, concrete aspects, concrete contributions from the international community as a result of this conference,” Rice said. “This will spur people to do more.”
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, wrapped up the meeting with the announcement of a date for a new donors conference: July 17 to 18 in Amman, Jordan.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the broad show of support in Brussels “a turning point” for Iraq, adding: ”Ultimately, of course, Iraq’s future lies in the hands of the Iraqis themselves.”
Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim sounded a similar theme, urging all around the crowded table to “look ahead. We must all contribute to the normalisation and full integration of Iraq in the family of nations.”
Al-Jaafari and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari set out four top priorities: drafting a constitution and holding elections, securing stability, rebuilding the economy and healing ties with neighbours.
To carry out those tasks, Zebari asked for help training Iraq’s military and for its neighbours to control their borders to prevent insurgents from infiltrating Iraq.
The response was a declaration backing the transitional government’s “efforts to achieve a democratic, pluralist, federal and unified Iraq, reflecting the will of the Iraqi people, in which there is full respect for political and human rights”.
Syria was a focus of the meeting, with Rice saying it has a responsibility “not to allow its territory to be used for the gathering of people who are wreaking havoc and causing harm”.
The US has repeatedly accused Syria of not doing enough to keep terrorists from slipping into Iraq from its borders, leading to speculation Damascus is next in line for regime change.
Zebari said he discussed Syria during the conference.
“We feel really some of our neighbours are not helpful enough,” said Zebari. “They heard our message loud and clear.”
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