Paris, May 25: France proposes holding a round-table bringing together the main players in Iraq to "verify the representiveness" of the future government there before a UN resolution is voted, foreign minister Michel Barnier said in an interview published today. Power is to be transferred by the US-led occupying force on June 30.
"This government will be credible only if it has real powers ...," Barnier told the daily Le Figaro, adding that it "must, therefore, be accepted by the different political forces and the main communities, the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds."
Only after the round-table is held would the future executive power in Iraq be voted in a UN resolution, Barnier said, laying out the French proposal.
The proposal underscored France's concern for an Iraqi leadership with authentic powers and capable of drawing support from the population.
The new UN resolution to be voted on must have a triple objective, the minister said, naming the goals as the return of sovereignty, "clearly marking" the authority of the United Nations and launching a political and economic reconstruction process in Iraq.
France led the opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, leaving ties with the United States at their lowest point in recent memory.
Bureau Report