France opposes U.S.-run administration in Iraq
Canadian Press; Associated Press
Refusing to end his opposition to the United States and Britain over Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac threatened Friday to veto any UN resolution to let them run the Persian Gulf country after the war.
Allowing Washington and London to oversee the creation of a new government in Iraq would reward them for starting a war that flouted world opinion, Chirac said.
France would veto any attempt in the United Nations to "legitimize the military intervention (and) ... give the belligerents the powers to administer Iraq,'' Chirac told reporters after a European Union summit.
"That would justify the war after the event,'' he said.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell brushed off the French threat, saying "we're going to put in place a better life for the people of Iraq, a representative form of government.''
The French leader's comments indicated the major rift in the West could get worse. France and Germany, backed by Russia and China, waged a sustained diplomatic campaign on the UN Security Council in an attempt to avert military action. That, in turn, created a crisis in transatlantic relations.
The war badly split the EU as Spain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal backed Britain's pro-American stance, while the other countries lined up with France and Germany. In all countries, public opinion had been overwhelmingly against the war.
Chirac's warning came after British Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier urged the other EU nations to support future moves at the UN to forge a post-Saddam "civil authority in Iraq.''
