CHIRAC CALLS FOR IRAQI SOVEREIGNTY

 Noticia de Elaine Sciolino  en “The International Herald Tribune” del 31.08.2003

Paris There was no rancor, but no regret either. When President Jacques Chirac stood before his ambassadorial corps Friday for his annual state-of-the-world speech, he omitted all criticism of the American-led war in Iraq and the failure of the United States to secure the peace there.

In fact, there was nothing in Chirac's speech to suggest that France had ever opposed the American decision to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein by force. Rather, in his first major foreign policy address since the Iraq war, the French president chose only to underscore the need for Iraqis to determine their own future under the authority of the United Nations.

"The only realistic option is to transfer authority and sovereignty to the Iraqis themselves," Chirac said. "This must be rapidly implemented as part of a process which only the United Nations is in a position to give legitimacy, with the support of the countries in the region."

He added that once such a framework were established, the international community could provide "effective and full support for the reconstruction of the country, in a manner which must be worked out with the Iraqis themselves."

Without criticizing the United States, he nevertheless defended the French policy of containing Iraq by UN-sponsored weapons inspections as the most "effective and legitimate instrument of collective action."

Chirac, who is scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush in New York in late September, is said by aides to be looking for ways to restore America's confidence in France following its refusal to join the United States in a war against Iraq.

But Chirac - like the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia - sees the world as a place with multiple centers of power.

On Friday, Chirac refrained from calling for limits on American power. But he defended the decision last April by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg - NATO countries that opposed the American-led war in Iraq - to issue a joint security and defense initiative aimed at making Europe's defense more coherent and independent.

Chirac stressed that "trans-Atlantic ties and the partnership between Europe and the United States, our primary ally, constitute a crucial element of world security."

But he also called for "enhanced military capabilities" for Europe and the forging of new alliances with countries like China, India and Japan.