Britain last night urged France and Russia to return to the United Nations security council to forge an agreement on the vexed question of the world body’s precise role in post-war Iraq.
Tony Blair used the EU’s Athens summit to mend fences with a pragmatic-sounding Jacques Chirac and discuss the next moves with Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general.
The French president announced that the EU would shortly mount an airlift of injured Iraqis — especially children — to hospitals in Europe.
Blair acknowledged European and domestic concerns by saying the UN must be involved in ”political and reconstruction matters”, not just the humanitarian relief US hawks would prefer.
”I am confident the UN will play an important role,” Annan said, ”and as we move ahead in the next few weeks I expect that road to become much clearer.”
Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain — backers of the US-led attack — suggested that they may send troops to help stabilise Iraq. Italy is dispatching military policemen and relief workers.
Germany’s foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said he saw ”a rapprochement” with the US over the UN’s role in Iraq. But differences remain.
Greece, current holder of the EU presidency and the summit host, failed to secure a statement on Iraq, which Britain feared would revive criticism of the military action that split the union.
Pockets of fighting continued in Iraq yesterday, as US troops were accused of firing on civilians in the northern city of Mosul for a second day running.
Powerful evidence of the passions aroused by the war was also seen on the streets of Athens, where violent protests marred the ceremonial entry of 10 new countries to what George Papandreou, Greece’s foreign minister, called the ”largest, most fascinating peace project in the world”.
As the freshly anointed member states signed the 5 000-page treaty of accession in a glittering ceremony beneath the Acropolis, demonstrators hurled petrol bombs at police and abuse at EU leaders who backed the invasion of Iraq — not least Blair.
But the prime minister was unrepentant. ”It is an important democratic right that people have in Europe that they can take to the streets,” he said. ”It is a right that people in Iraq have today, but didn’t have for 30 years under Saddam.
”I respect the right of people to take the view that the war was wrong, but I hope they also respect our motives in saying that we acted as we did because we genuinely thought it was best for the Iraqi people and the wider world.”
The prime minister held a pre-summit reconciliation session with Germany’s chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in Hanover on Tuesday night, so his encounter with Chirac, leader of the union’s anti-war camp, was watched especially closely.
Downing Street officials said the two, meeting for the first time since the Iraq war, shook hands and held a ”perfectly amiable” 20-minute conversation.
Later the French president gave out clear signals of pragmatic flexibility. ”Issue by issue, we have to find the right balance between the role of the United Nations, which must be the essential role, and the American and British forces present on the ground,” said his representative, Catherine Colonna.
”There are many projects we can work on together and progressively find a way to put the United Nations at the heart of the action.”
Diplomats said the issue was now about ”sequencing” relations between the military occupation and the Iraqi interim administration — and the UN’s role. ”It is time for the security council to start working its way into this,” said one, ”but we are not yet at the stage of discussing a new UN resolution.”
The UN has been sidelined since the failure to obtain a second security council resolution authorising war, but it is needed now to lift sanctions and legitimise post-war reconstruction.
Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, was last night meeting his counterparts from France, Spain and Russia in an attempt to relaunch the UN process.
He said the extent to which the UN could play the ”vital” role Britain and the US wanted would be defined by the security council.
Protests outside the Athens summit died away last night, but the Greek prime minister, Costas Simitis, faced embarrassment after 10 000 policemen failed to stop thousands of protesters venting their spleen with banners that declared: ”Unwanted: the Butchers, Blair, Aznar and Co. Leave Athens.”
Proceeding past the Spanish, Italian, British and US embassies, the demonstrators angrily chanted: ”American killers, British murderers of the innocent Iraqi people.” – Guardian Unlimited Â