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“We have to get out of this black hole, this spiral of violence, and launch negotiations and the political process,” Barnier said (AFP)
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PARIS,
September 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – France Monday,
September 27, swiftly responded to a US proposal to hold an
international conference on Iraq, insisting any such conference ought to
discuss the question of whether the US-led forces should withdraw from
the country, and should also include representatives of the Iraqi armed
resistance.
Describing
the situation in Iraq as a "black hole," French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier, whose country opposed the US-led invasion,
hinted that France could make discussion of the withdrawal of foreign
forces a condition for agreeing to the conference, according to Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
“It
is an issue which should be on the agenda of such a conference, if we
want it to take place,” he told France Inter radio.
A
day earlier, US Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested the holding of
an international conference on the situation in Iraq.
He
also said that it could take place in October, which would put it just
before the US presidential
election.
Resistance
Included
Barnier
said that any conference should include “different communities and
countries of the region as well as all (Iraqi) political groups,
including those that have chosen the path of armed resistance.”
“The
situation in Iraq is one of chaos with general insecurity even in the
Green Zone” in Baghdad, containing the headquarters of the interim
government and the US embassy, he said.
“This
chaos runs the risk of destabilizing, of drawing in the whole region. I
have compared it to a black hole. We have to get out of this black hole,
this spiral of violence, and launch negotiations and the political
process,” the minister said.
“We
are in a process set out by a UN resolution (1546), and we must stick to
it,” Barnier said. The essential stages were “democratic elections
... a new constitution with a referendum, and then the question of the
international forces will have to be asked,” he said.
Washington
never admitted the existence of Iraqi resistance, insisting
“insurgents” were made of remnants of Saddam Hussein’s loyalists
and foreign militants.
Observers
see the French “conditions”, especially the inclusion of Iraqi armed
resistance in the proposed conference, was more than likely to irk
Washington, even to force it to abandon the proposal altogether.
UN
Frame
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“And because it's getting worse, we will have to increase our efforts to defeat it,” Powell said (AFP)
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Powell
said the international conference could take place in a Middle East
capital such as Cairo or Amman, and that it should be attended by the G8
group of industrialized nations as well as Iraq's neighbors including
Iran and Syria.
Barnier,
however, said that any such conference should also take place within the
framework of the United Nations.
What
was important was “not to know if it (the conference) will be held
before of after elections” in Iraq scheduled for January, but “how
to make it successful and useful.”
While
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi, during his visit to
both Britain and the United States last week, insisted elections in Iraq
would take place as scheduled, Powell has cast heavy doubts on the
prospect Sunday.
“They
do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free,
democratic election,” Powell said on ABC’s “This Week” show,
referring to Iraqi resistance.
“And
because it's getting worse, we will have to increase our efforts to
defeat it, not walk away and pray and hope for something else to
happen.”
EU
Questions Date
Meanwhile,
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana cautiously welcomed Monday the US
calls for an international conference on Iraq, saying it could be a
"positive" step although it remains unclear how soon it can be
held.
Solana
said it was unclear if such a meeting -- gathering Iraq's interim
government, its neighbors, Group of Eight (G8) states, UN Security
Council members and the EU -- could be organized before the holy Muslim
month of Ramadan starts in mid-October.
“It's
the will of everybody to have this type of meeting with the hope that it
will be constructive and positive meeting,” he told reporters in
Brussels, after talks with NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
“About
the date I cannot be sure ... I don't know if it is possible (for it to
be) before or after the Ramadan,” he said.
