Russia may back Bush's Iraq plan
President George Bush’s U-turn plea for UN backed international help to run Iraq was welcomed in some surprising corners of the world today.
The post-war operation is costing Washington about £2.5bn a month, and has strained the military, which has 140,000 troops stationed in Iraq.
Russia said it may send troops; Syria welcomed the move to give the UN a major role in Iraq.
Unsurprisingly, the leaders of Germany and France criticised the US draft proposal to the UN Security Council, insisting that the world body should guide Iraq’s political reconstruction and that more responsibility must be turned over to local leaders.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov’s said he may send peacekeepers to Iraq as part of an international force, a strong signal that Moscow was edging closer to Washington in efforts to rebuild Iraq.
“Outright, I do not reject it or rule it out,” Ivanov said. “It all depends on the specific resolution.”
The statement, which precedes a planned visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the US later this month, appears to be an attempt to bolster ties with Washington, badly hurt by a rift over the war in Iraq.
Russia vehemently opposed the war and has called for a strong post-war role for the United Nations.
Ivanov said Russia’s decision will hinge on discussions in the Security Council on the new US proposed draft resolution on giving the United Nations a greater role in Iraq.
Moscow wants to get a share of Iraq rebuilding contracts and has pushed for the fulfilment of lucrative oil contracts Russian companies signed with Saddam Hussein’s regime and repayment of Baghdad’s near £6 billion debt to Russia.
Analysts said that underlying Washington’s request for UN help in Iraq is a difficult acknowledgement by the Bush administration that America cannot always go it alone on the world stage.
“This is pragmatism winning out over unilateralism,” said Max Boot, national security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“All this name-calling and one-upmanship really pales in comparison to the larger goal, which is reviving Iraq. I think we have to do what it takes to get that done. My sense is that the president is leaning more toward that mind-set as well.”
The United States wants the United Nations to vote soon on the resolution that would expand the UN role in governing Iraq and providing security. The draft offers the United Nations a greater role in peacekeeping in Iraq, although US commanders will retain control.
The leaders of Germany and France criticised the resolution today, saying it does not give the UN a large enough role in postwar Iraq and falls far short of the goal of turning over political responsibility to the Iraqi people.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac, both ardent opponents of the war in Iraq, said they would co-ordinate their positions on the resolution and hoped that Washington would be open to changes.
France holds veto power in the Security Council.
“We are naturally ready to study it in the most positive manner. But we are quite far removed from what we believe is the priority objective, which is the transfer of political responsibility to an Iraqi government as quickly as possible,” Chirac said after his summit with Schroeder in Dresden.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would welcome “constructive input” from the two countries.
Syria, a staunch opponent of the war in Iraq and the only Arab member of the Security Council, cautiously welcomed America’s proposal
“That the United States pays attention to the need for widening the task of the United Nations in Iraq is an initiative that is useful to look at positively,” said state-controlled Damascus Radio.
