A top Iraqi official attending an international conference on raising funds to rebuild Iraq warned Thursday that France and Germany’s limited donations would not be forgotten. Ayad Allawi, the current head of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed governing council, said he hoped German and French officials would reconsider their decision not to boost their contributions beyond funds already pledged through the European Union. "As far as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position they had," Allawi said. "I don’t think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq."
Guess TotalFinaElf won’t be getting those leases after all.
"The people of Iraq have a hard road ahead of them, filled with both risk and opportunity," Annan said at the opening of the donors’ conference for Iraq in Madrid, Spain. "Let us not leave them to travel that road alone." Some countries have balked at funding programs in post-war Iraq, citing the go-it-alone approach taken by the United States and Britain ahead of the conflict. Germany, France and Russia — the chief opponents of war before the U.S. invasion — sent lower level officials to the conference. Those countries have been opposed to what they see as too much U.S. control of the reconstruction process.
So contribute to the UN fund.
The United States has committed $20 billion to the effort. Spanish Economy Minister Rodrigo Rato said last Friday he hoped $15 billion to $20 billion would be raised, but Foreign Minister Ana Palacio told CNN last week that as little as $6 billion could be raised for a trust fund that the World Bank, United Nations and Iraqi authorities would manage.
$6 billion will help, and the donor list will allow the Iraqis to decide with whom they’ll do business in the future.
| After the Brits and Aussies, our primary ally in Iraq may turn out to be Iraq. It'll be interesting to see how long the attention span is: whether it'll grow into a solid post-occupation alliance, or if it'll become an arms-length friendship like we have with the Kuwaitis. Or if they'll eventually revert to pre-war type in the name of Arab Solidarity™... |
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