Schröder Rules Out Troops for Iraq

Faced with mounting casualties and costs and keen to offset some of the burden of policing and rebuilding Iraq, Washington has been lobbying countries to send in peacekeeping troops to help stabilize the country. Thursday’s passage of U.N. resolution 1500 on Iraq, which was put forth by the United States, is only the latest attempt to rope in the larger international community to reinforce the increasingly difficult task of keeping the peace in Iraq.

Though some countries such as Poland and Denmark have consented, others such as France, Russia and Germany -- all members of the United Nations Security Council and opponents to the U.S.-led war on Iraq -- have insisted they can only consider participating in such a peacekeeping mission under a full U.N. mandate. Diplomats have also made clear the new resolution authorizing the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq to provide humanitarian assistance and monitor reconstruction efforts won’t be enough of a U.N. role to convince countries to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.

Though Germany has not been approached with any concrete requests for troops from the U.S., Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has chosen to evade questions on how he would react if faced with a formal request.

No "wild speculations" on Iraq deployment

On Wednesday, the chancellor reiterated his position when he warned against "wild speculations" on a possible German troop deployment in Iraq and said nothing had changed regarding Germany’s refusal of a possible military deployment in Iraq. Ahead of Thursday’s Security Council vote on the new Iraq resolution, Schröder welcomed the planned strengthening of a U.N. role in postwar Iraq. "I'm happy to see that the United Nations will be integrated in the responsibility of reconstruction on the basis of a new resolution," he said.

There was confusion earlier this week when Defense Minister Peter Struck said if there was a U.N. resolution supporting peacekeeping operations in Iraq, he saw no reason why German troops could not take part in a NATO operation in the country. His comments followed rare praise from U.S. President Bush for Germany’s ongoing military engagement in Afghanistan after relations between both countries had plummeted to record lows in recent months. Struck’s statements sparked hot denials from Schröder’s office.

On Wednesday in Berlin, the chancellor was unequivocal in his statements. He said it was wrong to immediately speak of the deployment of German soldiers, when one talked of a NATO involvement and insisted there were no prerequisites for a deployment. Irrespective of earlier disagreements with the U.S. over the Iraq war, the chancellor added there was a "fundamental interest in the success of the postwar process" throughout the western world.

That seemed to cause Struck to change tack. In an interview with the Thüringer Allgemeinen daily, Struck said there were no indications the Americans would agree to a Security Council resolution that would place the administration of Iraq in U.N. hands. "There’s no U.N. model that can be comparable with Afghanistan. That’s why it makes no sense to theorize about it."