German Chancellor Schroder Defends His Anti-Invasion Stance

German Chancellor Schroder defends anti-war stance

Staff and agencies
Thursday February 13, 2003

The German chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, today defended his opposition to a war with Iraq and called again for expanded UN weapons inspections.
"The chief duty of international politics is to prevent war. That is our orientation," Mr Schrooder told the German parliament. "No politics of expediency and no security doctrine must lead us to become accustomed to war as a normal political means."

In his speech, Mr Schroder called on Iraq to "fully and actively" cooperate with the weapons inspectors, and said Germany's goal was to establish structures to ensure long-term Iraqi containment and stability in the region.

He rejected the idea that opposing war and favouring intensified inspections would ease pressure on Iraq.

"Every possibility of a peaceful solution must be exhausted - the inspections must be continued and they must be expanded," he said. "To reject a war is not to be condemned to appeasement."

Conservative politicians accused Mr Schroder of causing "serious damage to Germany's vital diplomatic and security interests" by isolating the country from the US and from European allies who favour the US position. However, they failed to push a motion that would force Mr Schroder to give up his pledge not to endorse any war.

The conservative opposition said that by ruling out the use of force - unlike France, which has always said it may support an attack in the end - that Mr Schroder had made war more likely by taking the pressure off Saddam Hussein.

Mr Schroder did not present details of a Franco-German plan to intensify weapons inspections. Instead he repeated elements of a plan presented by the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, to the UN last week.

The chancellor said the number of inspectors in Iraq should be "doubled or tripled," reinforced with "technical material, infrastructure and specially qualified personnel" and that the inspectors' ability to intervene should be strengthened.

The US has claimed that additional inspectors would be ineffective and would shift the burden of proof that Saddam Hussein has disarmed to UN weapons inspectors.

The US was angered when Germany and France announced their plan for expanded inspections without telling the US, even though the American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was attending a security conference in Munich at the time. Previously Mr Rumsfeld had disparagingly referred to France and Germany as "Old Europe" in an attempt to isolate them.

Tomorrow the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, is expected to ask the French and German foreign ministers whether their plan for greater inspections was an attempt to get Saddam Hussein's government "off the hook."