Sorry, fellas, your a day week late and a dollar short:
Posted on 04/05/2003 7:37:55 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
PARIS, Apr 04, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia called for a swift ending to the U.S.-led war on Baghdad, and for an even swifter response to the humanitarian distress of the Iraqi people.
"The faster this is over, the better for everyone, including the United States," said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the war, during a joint afternoon press conference in Paris.
The ministers -- who endorsed a common statement demanding the United Nations assume a premier role in post-war Iraq, and warning neighboring countries not to take advantage of the current chaos -- said nothing that had not been said previously, including during a meeting of European and U.S. diplomats this week in Brussels.
But their joint appearance, following a luncheon at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, underscored the continued collaboration by Europe's most powerful war critics.
Reading a joint statement endorsed by all three diplomats, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin outlined three post-war objectives, including restoring stability in the region, and -- in apparent criticism to U.S. plans for an interim administration in Iraq -- "full sovereignty" by Iraqis over their territory.
The international community should also tackle other Middle East conflicts, he said, notably that between Israelis and Palestinians.
The diplomats also reiterated the "essential role" of the United Nations in a post-Saddam Iraq, but stopped short of offering a timeline or precise job description for the United Nations.
"The place of the United Nations...in the mindset of Europeans, there is no doubt it is a central place," de Villepin said. "Simply because in such an important world crisis, the very principle of international legitimacy is a principle we are all attached to."
In recent days, Britain and the United States have differed on the U.N.'s prominence in reconstructing Iraq.
A report by The New York Times also suggested Washington has already hand-picked an interim team of former CIA officers, retired generals and others to administer Iraq.
In addition, European businesses and diplomats are on edge over whether they will receive a share of reconstruction spoils.
"The idea that Iraq could be a sort of El Dorado, a cake which states can share, appears to me both contrary to good sense, and contrary to a state and a population that is being tested today," de Villepin said. "...I have the conviction Iraq will remain, over many months if not years, a concern, a preoccupation, a duty for the international
community...and it should be the entire international community that should be implicated."
For his part Ivanov simply described as "premature" concerns of dividing up lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Both France and Russia had substantial business interests with the government of Saddam Hussein, although many remained unrealized.
The ministerial meeting offered France a brief moment in the international limelight, after two weeks observing the war's progression from the sidelines.
De Villepin was scheduled to meet with Pope John Paul and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini in Rome later Friday.
Asked about rocky relations with the government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a coalition partner in the Iraq war, the French minister replied -- in flawed Italian -- "I have much love for Italy."
Sorry, fellas, your a day week late and a dollar short:
LIFE BE GOOD!!!!!!!!!!
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