Powell, De Villepin, face off again?

GENEVA, September 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the latest French proposals on Iraq were "totally unrealistic", shortly before he arrived in Geneva for talks with the other permanent members of the UN Security Council early Saturday, September 13.

Speaking to journalists accompanying him on his plane, Powell said the proposals by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, especially for a calendar for a return to Iraqi sovereignty, were "interesting but not executable," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was to meet Saturday with the Foreign Ministers of the Security Council's big five to seek a consensus on how to stabilize and rebuild Iraq.

Asked about the ideas put forward by de Villepin in the French daily Le Monde Friday, Powell was highly critical, declaring: "It's totally unrealistic. It would be delightful if one could do that, but one can't do that."

The French Minister had prescribed a rapid transfer of power from the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq, general elections early next year and an international conference on reconstruction as conditions for supporting a new United Nations resolution.

Powell retorted: "It's easy to toss out nice theories about sovereignty and occupation, liberation and all that, but as a practical matter it can't happen in that timeframe."

"We have done a lot of liberation in Europe after Europeans had occupied other parts of Europe. We restore sovereignty, we do not deny freedom or sovereignty to those who own the land," Powell went on.

"It's (the French proposal) essentially proposing to stop what we are doing, and we have done too much and invested too much to consider any such proposal."

De Villepin, he said, "expressed the view that it is the occupation that is the problem. But you need that liberating force there for a period of time to get control of the security situation.

"They (the French) feel quite strongly about their position.

"We will see if there is not a language that can bridge this. But I cannot anticipate us agreeing to any language that would buy into what Mr. De Villepin has been saying."

The Secretary of State said that the reactions within the 15-member Security Council to the U.S. draft on stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq had been "generally supportive."

But "there are a couple of members in the Council with a slightly different point of view, or a great different point of view, that say let's speed up the transfer of governing authority from the Coalition provisional authority to an Iraqi entity, and let's make any design of plan for the political transition and a timetable to be a matter between the UN representative and the governing council as it grows into an interim administration.

"That would not be acceptable to us."

The Russians, he said were "playing a helpful role. I think they want to be part of this effort."

This time, Powell said he did not "visualize any veto situation", in a reference to threats made earlier by France and Russia.

But he added: "Vetoes I can never predict."

Washington's proposed wording - tabled 11 days ago - calls for a multinational force implicitly under U.S. command and endorses the U.S.-installed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) which is charged with setting a program for a constitution and democratic elections.

Geneva Talks

Powell arrived for talks on Iraq with top diplomats from the UN Security Council, as U.S. President George W. Bush warned that "no free nation can be neutral" in Iraq's reconstruction.

At Saturday's meeting, Powell and Foreign Ministers from the other permanent members - staunch U.S. ally Britain, and Iraq war opponents China, France and Russia - will seek a consensus on how to stabilize and rebuild Iraq.

Annan faces the delicate task of uniting the veto-wielding superpowers on how to restore Iraqi sovereignty, and on what role the United Nations should play in the process.

Ahead of the meeting, embattled Bush issued strong appeals for more international help in stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq.

In a speech Friday to a cheering crowd of soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, Bush said Powell would take the message to Geneva that "No free nation can be neutral in the fight between civilization and chaos. We thank all the nations who have contributed. It's time for others to join us."