EU United Against US Unilateral Attack on Iraq

For months, European leaders have been urging Washington to explain exactly why it wants to topple the Hussein regime.

Hoping that a thorough explanation may help those still undecided on Bush’s aspirations to make do with the Iraqi leader, both friends and foes, national and international of the Bush administration have been pressing for a detailed justification.

Speeches by various administration members followed – but the most decisive step was taken by Vice-president Dick Cheney last week, who said the threat of Iraq developing nuclear weapons in the near future justified an attack against it.

Iraq, he said, would "seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world's energy supplies, directly threaten America's friends throughout the region and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail."

He rejected hopes that a return of weapons inspectors would make military action superfluous, saying “a return of inspectors would provide no assurance whatsoever of compliance with UN inspectors. On the contrary, there is a great danger that it would provide false comfort that Mr Hussein was somehow ‘back in his box’”.

In addition, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that though the US would seek support for a possible strike against Iraq, it would not wait for international "unanimity."

EU urges for broader consultations on Iraq

Since then, the debate has only intensified, despite explanations.

Although not on the official agenda of this weekend’s meeting of EU foreign ministers in Elsinore, Denmark, the dispute over Iraq dominated Saturday’s discussions, along with the dispute of the International Criminal Court.

On Saturday, EU ministers urged the US to continue broad consultations on the issue of Iraq, calling for UN weapons inspectors to be allowed by Baghdad to return to Iraq immediately.

Speaking at the meeting in Elsinore, Denmark’s foreign minister Per Stig Moeller said that no concrete decision had be taken on military action in Iraq.

But “doing nothing about Iraq’s breach of these UN resolutions is not an option”, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Despite leaving the question of action open, the EU did make it clear that it was up to the UN Security Council to consider other measures if Iraq failed to allow inspectors to return.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the BBC that there was overwhelming support for their re-admission, adding that the threat of military action had to remain to ensure they could do their jobs properly.

German opposition to unilateral strike

Both French and German leaders have publicly opposed unilateral military action by the US.

In an interview with German private television broadcaster RTL earlier this week, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder accused the Bush administration of shifting strategy away from allowing UN weapons inspectors into Iraq and towards removing Hussein.

"If you're going to change the objective," Schröder said, "Then you have to take full responsibility for the consequences. If you remove someone by means of military force, then it will be difficult to persuade that person to allow inspectors into his country. I believe that changing the objective has proven to be a serious error."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said that unless the US could prove that Hussein had nuclear weapons, then any attempt to remove him could bring unbearable stress into an already volatile situation.

"We are seriously concerned that when steps are taken now that aren't completely thought out, then the result won't be more peace and stability in the Middle East, but the exact opposite," he said.

"We're in an extremely dangerous situation, with the danger of conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. We also have serious problems in Afghanistan that need to be resolved. For these and other reasons, we consider any attempt at a regime change in Iraq to be extremely risky and something we can't endorse," he said.

On saturday, Fischer called for more discussion on the issues of Iraq: "We have to continue this discussion", he said. " It has not been completed and, of course, it is also linked to the talks with our most important partner on the other side of the Atlantic."

In the coming days, close attention will be paid to views elsewhere on the continent, from those countries who have otherwise remained quiet on the isse of Iraq.

Madrid and Rome, where conservative leaders Jose Maria Aznar and Silvio Berlusconi are considered instinctively pro-American are considered unlikely to break ranks with the broad EU consensus. And non-Nato EU neutrals Sweden, Austria, Finland and Ireland are expected to come down firmly on the dovish side of any argument in the coming days.