Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 20, 2003
Germany Urges Continued UN Role in Solving Iraq Crisis
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Wednesday urged the United Nations and the Security Council to continue playing a central role in solving the Iraqi crisis.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Wednesday urged the United Nations and the Security Council to continue playing a central role in solving the Iraqi crisis.
"This is crucial to world order and must continue to be the case in future. The UN is the key institution for the preservationof peace and stability and for the peaceful reconciliation of interests in the world today and of tomorrow," he said.
Fischer emphasized that the Security Council has not failed andnoted that the council has made available the instruments to disarm Iraq peacefully and that the council is not responsible forwhat is happening outside the United Nations.
He urged the council to preserve the inspection regime and to endorse the working program as they will be needed after the end of military action.
The minister told a Security Council special session that Germany emphatically rejected impending war against Iraq and thatthe policy of military intervention has no credibility.
"There is no basis in the UN Charter for a regime change with military means," he said.
He expressed Germany's deep regret that the council's efforts to disarm Iraq through peaceful means seemed to have no chance of success and noted the majority of the council members believed there are no grounds for breaking off the disarmament process carried out under UN supervision.
He also expressed Germany's great concern about the humanitarian consequences of a war in Iraq. "Our task now is to doeverything we possibly can to avert a humanitarian disaster," he added.
Fischer is among the five foreign ministers who attended Wednesday's meeting to discuss the last effort to avert an imminent war in Iraq.