French Leaders Continue Disagreement Over Iraq
Tom Rivers
The leaders of Britain and France, meeting in London
Monday, have found common ground on a variety of issues, but disagreement
remains over Iraq.s
Earlier this year, British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and French President Jacques Chirac strongly disagreed about going to
war in the first place（首先）. Now in their
first summit since the end of the conflict, the two men still remain
apart on the transfer of power to the Iraqi people.
At a news conference, the French president through
a translator said American policy in Iraq was now generally heading
in the right direction, but incomplete. "I think that it is extending
over a somewhat too long period and it does seem to me a somewhat incomplete
policy because I believe that what is important in ensuring that the
Iraqis accept this is the role of the United Nations. And the role of
the United Nations is not clearly specified, not as clearly specified
as it should be."
On the issue of developing European defense policy, the two seemed much
closer together. Mr. Blair said it was not a matter of choosing between
NATO or Europe when it comes to defense. "There is nobody I know
of in Europe that wants to see European defense go forward at the expense
of NATO. NATO will remain the cornerstone（基礎(chǔ)）of
our defense."
Mr. Chirac agreed, but stressed the need for much
closer European defense integration. "We believe that there are
a number of operations which can be carried out. We have talked about
Macedonia（馬其頓王國(guó)）, we have talked about
Africa, more generally speaking, the Balkans（巴爾干地區(qū)）.
There are operations, which need to be carried out by us and it needs
to be properly prepared, properly led and properly operated."
The two leaders pledged to work closely in combating
terrorism and improving the environment.
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