Chirac] seems to think we are talking about hundreds of thousands of troops We are
Posted in General on 01. Oct, 2010
Chirac] seems to think we are talking about hundreds of thousands of troops We are not talking about that We are talking about training the Iraqis. Any request for Nato support would come from the Iraqi government.”The summit did agree to support a fresh attempt to revive the Middle East “road-map” peace initiative by asking the quartet – Russia, the US, the EU and the UN – to go back into the peace talks by the end of this month. President Jacques Chirac of Francecast a cloud over the G8 summit yesterday by rejecting a call by George Bush and Tony Blair for Nato to send troops to Iraq to back the interim government after the handover of sovereignty on 30 June.
President Bush and Mr Blair made it clear they were hoping that Nato nations, which have been reluctant to become embroiled in Iraq, would have a change of heart following the unanimous passing of the UN Security Council resolution giving authority to the Allied force But M. Chirac told reporters at the summit of leading industrial nations at Sea Island: “I do not think it’s the mission of Nato to intervene in Iraq.”A senior British source responded: “[M. Once again US officials stressed that the Sharon plan to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank was a "hugely significant" step, whose importance was missed by many countries, among them Britain.In yesterday's opening session Mr Bush gave an upbeat review of the strong US economy, now growing at an annual 4 per cent or more, despite the sharp rise in oil prices.Many countries regard the soaring US budget and trade deficits as another threat to world prosperity. But Mr Bush defended his massive tax cuts, a prime cause of the budget deficit, as essential to start the present recovery.The US believes it is up to Europe and Japan to boost their own economies, to reduce domestic unemployment and take the weight off the US.Today's session, to which several African leaders have been invited, will deal with debt relief, the fight against poverty and AIDS, and helping international peacekeeping operations in global trouble spots.. "Now, that's not for us to dictate to people, but it is for us to help them get there."But after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, Washington's moral credibility in the region has rarely been lower.
US officials increasingly acknowledge that without progress on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, in a way that suggests the US is not irrevocably tilted towards the Israeli cause, prospects for any wider democratic initiative in the region are dim.Before he left for the summit, the Jordanian monarch - one of the staunchest US allies in the region - said "no programme on the broader democratic initiative is possible, until a resolution of the [Palestinian-Isaeli] conflict has been achieved”.But Washington, outwardly at least, is hardly changing its ground. “What we’re doing today is to say, ‘Look, sensible people sitting down and looking at the situation in the Middle East know there needs to be a process of reform and change,’” the Prime Minister said after a private breakfast with Mr Bush. But Saudi Arabia and Egypt – two countries crucial for the initiative – refused to come, as did Morocco.The scheme is no more than unwanted Western meddling, they complain, and a high handed attempt to impose foreign ways on the Middle East.Mr Blair however denied the charges. Cancellation of the $120bn of foreign debt run up by Saddam Hussein has been resolutely opposed by France, which argues that Iraq should not be treated differently from other, and even poorer, countries in the developing world Moreover M. The priority is mending fences, rather than rubbing salt into old Iraq wounds, and Monday’s unanimous UN vote has given the occasion an ideal send-off.However each of the main US aims is likely to run into difficulties. Chirac alone wore a formal suit and tie.And the political content for the leaders – from France, the US, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, Canada and Germany – is also much more relaxed this time. Allegations of corruption have already resulted in 14 officers being charged with crimes ranging from drug trafficking and money laundering to theft of speed, ecstasy and LSD.Mr Williams’ wife, Roberta, visited police headquarters twice yesterday.
Asked by local reporters if she had a comment after her second visit, she said: “I’ve had a stressful day and I’m not in the mood.”. President Bush yesterday was bluntly told by European and Arab allies alike that a serious new push for a Palestinian-Israeli peace solution was vital if his vision of a stable Iraq at the heart of a reformed Middle East were to have any chance of success. The latest violence is understood to be centred on the amphetamines trade.Not only has the violence exposed Melbourne’s seedy side, it has added to fears that the underworld menace has been allowed to flourish because of widespread police corruption. Throughout the 1990s, Victoria Police’s drug squad carried out a high-risk policy of manufacturing its own amphetamines in an attempt to break into the city’s network of dealers. One of them was crying”.Melbourne’s gang history dates back to the 1920s, and particularly violent spats centred on the city’s fruit and vegetable markets and construction unions in the 1960s and 1970s. An underworld figure, Mick Gatto, has been charged with Veniamin’s murder.Mr Gatto, a former heavyweight boxer, is thought to have a A$250,000 (£103,000) bounty on his head. He calmly waited in the restaurant until police arrived and told them he had killed the famously volatile Veniamin in self-defence.Police say the intended target of the latest alleged plot is a close friend of Mr Gatto.