Attacks on Iraq: EU fragility exposed
By Alejandro Kirk
ROME: Britain's move to join the US military operation against Iraq without consulting its European Union (EU) partners shows that the 15-member EU is far from achieving the political unity its leaders hope for, regional analysts say.
Germany, Spain and Portugal have backed the air strikes, issuing declarations highlighting the responsibility of the Iraqi regime and stressing their wish that the operation ends soon. On the other hand, Italy and France have come out against them.
As a group, Europe was neither consulted nor informed of the attack. Nor was it invited to take part in prior diplomatic or military moves within the framework of the United Nations to resolve the crisis.
Placing its relations with Washington, once again, above the continental alliance, London today appears to have buried the political plans of the 15.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried on Friday to mend ties with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, who was not informed of the launching of the attacks against Iraq on Thursday.
Blair had informed only French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Political sources say that in a brief telephone conversation with Blair, the Italian leader asked him the real aim of the attacks and how long they would last. The response he got was the same as the one served up to the press: the idea was to weaken Iraq's capacity to wage war.
But the Italian government feels such an objective cannot be achieved by bombarding Iraq and could have the opposite effect: the end of UN weapons monitoring and the strengthening of Saddam Hussein's regime. Blair received a similar response from Chirac, who feels that attempts should now be made to rebuild a system of relations with Iraq.
Italian senator and former prime minister Giulio Andreotti commented that "a real attack has been launched against the tiring construction of the European Union". "The English attitude is worse than (North) America's because while we were debating in the senate, he (Blair) paid no mind to our opinions, even in his dreams," Andreotti said.
Former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi said the United States, "in the absence of a world order, has taken on the role of global policeman...this can cause nothing but perplexity given the obvious arbitrariness of the decisions it involves." The same holds for Blair, he added.According to Prodi, the apparent aim of the Anglo-US operation to weaken Saddam Hussein's regime so as to facilitate an internal insurrection was doomed to fail. "He will remain in office, with much more suffering than before," he said.
Over the weekend preceding the attacks, EU leaders met in Vienna to discuss joint political and economic measures to fight the continent's structural unemployment. The summit decided to postpone for a year the appointment of a virtual EU foreign policy minister, a post Britain had wanted but which it will probably have a hard time getting following the attacks on Iraq.
Italian political observer Paolo Garimberti recalled that in February, Italy and France, together with Russia, had managed to get the United States to accept the mediation of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and put punitive action on hold.
Subsequent developments, including Iraq's obstruction of the work of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) supervising Iraqi disarmament "led Blair and Clinton to distrust their European allies and place us before a fait accompli", said Garimberti.
Foreign Minister Joshcka Fischer of Germany - which will take over the EU presidency at the start of next year - proposed that the EU launch an initiative in January to re-establish dialogue with Iraq, according to press reports here.
Unlike 1991, when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait united almost the entire world against Baghdad, this time around, the nations that support Washington have done so with little enthusiasm and many reservations, especially because the United States and Britain totally disregarded the United Nations.
"One has to wonder what would have happened if the European Union existed not only on the monetary plane but also with regard to foreign policy and security," wrote Garimberti.
"Perhaps Blair would have felt more faithful to European than to transatlantic ties."
The attacks against Iraq had continued on Saturday, coinciding with the start of Ramazan.
It is normally a time of fasting, reflection and renewal of religious commitment in Iraq as in other Muslim nations. Now, however, Iraqis are counting their dead, assessing the damage and are uncertain as to the future.-