Blair Dossier fails to impress Germans
Germany today refused to endorse Tony Blair’s warning about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and said it remains opposed to war, joining France and China in reacting sceptically to a report the United States called “frightening.”
“What we read there does not differ from what the German government already knew,” government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said Wednesday.
Still, talks between Schroeder and the premier in London on Tuesday evening were a “helpful” start in the German leader’s efforts to rebuild trust in Washington, Heye said.
He refused to give details on the talks in London, Schroeder’s first trip since winning re-election on Sunday.
US and British efforts to threaten Saddam Hussein with military force if he fails to readmit weapons inspectors under stringent conditions have led to the worst US-German rift in decades – a dispute that has raised concern among other NATO countries about the unity of the 53-year-old alliance.
US and German officials continued to blame each other today for the diplomatic chill, even as the Berlin government signalled growing eagerness to patch up the differences.
The sour mood carried over to a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Warsaw that ended today with a warning to Germany by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“We have a saying in America: If you’re in a hole, stop digging,” he said.
During the conference, Rumsfeld left the room just before his German counterpart spoke, a move he insisted was not meant as a snub.
German officials vented their own anger, bristling at a report that US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as saying the US-German atmosphere was “poisoned” – a word Rumsfeld repeated at the Nato meeting.
“I think that all those who feel that way should reconsider whether that was such a fortunate remark,” Heye said.
Though Germany has been most categorical in rejecting war on Iraq, French and Chinese leaders also sounded sceptical about Blair’s Iraq dossier.
French President Jacques Chirac reiterated that he saw no need for a proposed Security Council resolution threatening war if Saddam keeps UN arms inspectors out.
Only inspectors can provide the needed proof about Saddam’s weapons, he said, adding: “I do not think at all that war is unavoidable.”
China’s prime minister, Zhu Rongji, applied pressure on Baghdad, saying: “We request that Iraq comply with UN resolutions without any preconditions.”
But he also warned that any attack against Iraq without UN blessing “will lead to severe consequences.”
Britain and the United States are two of the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, and they have been trying to win the support of the other three – China, France and Russia – for a new resolution threatening Iraq for its continued defiance.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi urged the United Nations today to come up with a “new, strongly worded, unambiguous and exacting” resolution on Iraq, authorising the use of force if Baghdad doesn’t comply.
He gave no indication of what role Italy might play in any military action, but insisted the country’s national interest lies in its alliance with the United States.
