EU aims to re-engage in Iraq after Obama takes office – report

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Lebanese Daily Star on Saturday reported that the European Union is set to step up its engagement in Iraq once a new U.S. administration takes office, according to an internal paper by the French EU presidency. “Our common interest is to contribute to the success of Iraq,” the document seen by The Daily Star says. “Therefore, the European Union intends to re-engage in the country without delay.” According to the Daily Star, European countries like France and Germany were alienated from Washington in light of President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war against Iraq in 2003. When Spain’s socialist government withdrew its troops after a series of terror attacks, Madrid’s relations with the U.S. also soured. The desire to re-engage with the U.S. over policies in Iraq coincides with Bush’s designated successor Barack Obama’s preparations for taking office. The document is part of a European effort to identify policy areas the 27-member block and the U.S. have in common. The Daily Star said that the EU foreign ministers discussed the paper, which is not intended for publication, on the sidelines of a meeting in Marseille Monday. The eight-page document is intended to provide a framework for European cooperation with the U.S. in key foreign-policy areas – the Middle East, Russia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Diplomats familiar with the talks insisted that any level of re-engagement was linked to the security situation in Iraq. “At the moment, the country is probably still too insecure. But we’re starting the discussion now. The better things get, the more we can do,” a European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. “We are certainly concerned and we are thinking of ways of how to help stabilize the country,” another diplomat said. During his campaign, Obama had promised to withdraw American troops within 18 months from taking office. The U.S. and Iraq are currently negotiating a deal that would see the U.S. pull out of Iraq by 2011. According to EU diplomats, considerations among European nations are still at an early stage. If the security situation improves, many of them may be ready to step up their work on development projects. In addition to that, diplomats said their governments would be ready to talk about enlarging an already existing law-and-order mission in the country. Other diplomats floated the idea of stepping up training efforts of Iraqi police or gendarmerie forces. In the past, Germany has trained police officers outside Iraq on a limited scale. Italy had assisted Baghdad with the creation of a paramilitary force similar to its own Carabinieri. Earlier this year, the UN special envoy to Iraq, Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura, had called for more European help in setting up such a force. On Syria and Lebanon, the document states that the EU “must react to the positive recent developments.” “We can now together encourage these openings, to foster them in a pragmatic way,” the paper says. The EU’s goals were to bolster the “sovereignty and stability of Lebanon, an effective normalization between Lebanon and Syria and the opening of direct peace negotiations between the two countries and Israel.” France called for a global approach to the region, “including Lebanon, Syria but also the Iranian risk factor.” Concerning negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the document sparks a stern warning. “Time is playing into the hands of the extremists and is menacing the very idea of two states itself,” the paper says. “We [the U.S. and the EU] must [act] without waiting and without starting from zero.” Palestinians, the EU document says, “have made convincing efforts in the [areas] concerning security.” “This has now to be responded [to with] a complete freeze of all colonization activities,” the paper says. “Colonies are a major impediment to a peace deal.” MH (R)/SR Numbe