SAVANNAH, Ga. – France and the United States clashed anew over Iraq on Wednesday, jarring the Group of Eight summit that the Bush administration had hoped would bury the diplomatic battles of the past.
Just hours after President Bush expressed hope that NATO could play an expanded role in providing security for Iraq, French president Jacques Chirac emphatically rejected the idea.
“I do not think that it is NATO’s job to intervene in Iraq. Moreover, I do not have the feeling that it would be either timely or necessarily well understood,” said Chirac, adding that he had “strong reservations on this initiative.”
Leaders of the G-8 countries also include Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a guest at the summit, later echoed Chirac’s concern. Asked whether NATO, which includes Turkey as a member, should have a role in Iraq, Erdogan said: “The concept we’ve been emphasizing is the role of the United Nations.”
Bush had said he had discussed NATO’s involvement in Iraq over breakfast with Blair, “and we believe NATO ought to be involved.”
Bush also failed to win support from the other leaders for writing off the vast majority of Iraq’s $120 billion in debt, after France and Germany balked at giving the new Iraqi government a discount of more than 50 percent, officials said.
Bush hosted a lunch for G-8 leaders and the leaders of seven countries from the region – Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Turkey, Algeria, Afghanistan and Iraq – to highlight the administration’s plans to spread democracy through the region.
The formal text of the plan, released Wednesday, said the G-8 would create a forum for discussions on reform with business and civil society leaders in the region, among other initiatives. Leaders of key countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, however, spurned Bush’s luncheon invitation.
Echoing a common European complaint about the administration’s approach, Chirac said the Arab world did not need “missionaries” of democracy. Instead he said conflicts such as the long-running struggle between Israelis and Palestinians must be addressed.
In addition to the Mideast democracy initiative, the G-8 leaders adopted and released a long list of agreements and “action plans,” including plans to accelerate global trade negotiations, eliminate poverty through entrepreneurship, provide greater security in international travel and halt the spread of nuclear proliferation.
After lunch, Bush held his first meeting with the new interim Iraqi president, Ghazi al-Yawer.
“I really never thought I’d be sitting next to an Iraqi president of a free country a year and a half ago, and here you are,” Bush said. Hailing the U.N. Security Council’s new resolution on Iraq, an emotional Bush reiterated his intention for a “transfer of full sovereignty” to Iraq, adding: “It’s been a proud day for me.”
Al-Yawer, in white headdress and brown robe, thanked Americans for “the sacrifices” endured during the war in Iraq and said Iraqis were “determined to have a free, democratic, federal Iraq.” He assured Bush that “we are moving in steady steps towards it.”
Associated Press
French President Jacques Chirac and President Bush conduct their morning meeting at the G-8 summit Wednesday on Sea Island, Ga.
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