The international conference on rebuilding Iraq is shaping up as a means for France, Germany and Russia to gain or regain new or lost Iraqi contracts and I believe could be one of the reasons they stood behind the recent U.S. backed UN resolution on Iraq.
He also said that Moscow had been pleased that Washington was moving toward supporting Russia’s desire to organize an international conference for Iraq, much like that held for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. #msg-3291165
-Am
Russia calls for int'l conference on Iraq
BERLIN : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is suggesting an international conference on rebuilding Iraq with representatives from Western and Muslim countries, he told a German magazine in an interview.
"On this subject, one could organize an international conference or a roundtable, bringing together Iraqi representatives and members of the international community which would include countries neighboring ( Iraq ), the Arab League and members of the UN Security Council," he told the weekly Focus magazine in its Monday issue.
"First and foremost, you have to show the Iraqis that they are masters of their destiny. That is the only way you can begin reconstruction and dissipate the doubts in the Arab and Islamic world," he added.
Russia was a strong opponent of the US-led attack on Iraq, though it along with the 14 other members of the UN Security Council last Tuesday approved a new UN resolution governing the handover of power to Iraqis after June 30.
Addressing the fight against international terrorism, one of the reasons the coalition intervened against the regime of Saddam Hussein, Lavrov stressed that there was "no connection between terrorism and Iraq before the American intervention.
"The terrorists infiltrated into the country after the occupation" in April of last year.
He said the best way to get out of the impass could be to end the occupation as quickly as possible, returning sovereignty in Iraq to its people.
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