Fischer in plea to US over Middle East

Financial Times ^ | July 23 2003 22:01 | Hugh Williamson, Romanus Otte and Wolfgang Proissl in Berlin

[demlosers]

Joschka Fischer, German foreign minister, has urged the US not to lose sight of its responsibility to build a "new status quo" in the Middle East, a task he said could take decades.

"It has always been our view that the US, with its huge power, would find it relatively easy to move into Baghdad. However, it was also always our view that [with victory in Iraq], the US would become not a power in the Middle East but the power in the Middle East, with the ambition to shape a new status quo . . . This is a task to be measured not in weeks or months, but in years or decades." Mr Fischer added: "We are talking here not just about reconstruction, democratisation and modernisation of Iraq, but of the whole region."

His comments come at a politically sensitive time. Despite the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons, the US still has its hands full in Iraq with security and political problems.

The German foreign minister's views may receive a frosty reception in Washington, considering Germany firmly opposed the Iraq war and has refused to consider post-war military help unless a new United Nations resolution is adopted. However, in an apparent offer of European help, Mr Fischer stressed that while this task was primarily a US responsibility, it would also need to be based on a "collective effort" and "strategic dialogue" with Europe.

He said he regarded transatlantic relations "as a cornerstone of freedom and stability in the 21st century".

Mr Fischer also called for "creative thinking" on the need to build a more unified grouping of European Union states in Nato, as there will in future be an increasing overlap among European countries between Nato and EU membership.

"I believe we can come to a new approach [on this issue], based on agreement between Americans and Europeans," he said.

The minister recently suggested forming a "euro-group" within Nato, only to quickly bury the proposal after it met with disapproval in Washington. He called on EU member states not to unpick the draft at the EU's Intergovernmental Conference starting in October, saying each country should set aside their special interests, or "national sacred cows".

[thoughtomator]

Ok, who told the Germans what the plan was?

[SES1066]

They read about it in the ouija board, where they get all their great ideas. Now where did I put that majik mushroom...?

[Cicero]

I thought he wanted us to lay back and let the UN do it.

[thinktwice]

A lesson from history tells us to beware of Joschkas bearing gifts.

[Desron13]

The minister recently suggested forming an Einsatzgruppen er I mean euro-group within Nato, only to quickly bury the proposal after it met with disapproval in Washington.

Darn those Freudian slips!

[Prodigal Son]

"We are talking here not just about reconstruction, democratisation and modernisation of Iraq, but of the whole region."

Yep. Glad the German gov't is catching a clue here.