MIDDLE EAST: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, yesterday renewed European calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East when he attended a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrialised nations in Washington.
Mr Cowen also called on the United Nations Security Council to come forward with a resolution to set out clearly the road to Iraqi sovereignty before the hand-over to a caretaker government at the end of June.
Before the meeting Mr Bush met the ministers from the G8, comprising the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia in the White House.
He told them of his disgust at the "heinous pictures" of US treatment of prisoners in Iraq and his determination to see those responsible held to account, said Mr Cowen, who attended as a representative of the EU presidency.
"Obviously he believes very strongly that America is just as disgusted about it as anyone else," and promised that those guilty of such "craven behaviour" would be held to account in a transparent way, said Mr Cowen.
After the G8 meeting in the State Department, Mr Cowen said last night: "I and a number of my colleagues underlined our particular concern about the abuse inflicted on Iraqi prisoners" as they "undermined the principles on which our democracies are founded".
The main objective of the meeting was to prepare for the US-hosted G8 summit to be held in June in Sea Island, Georgia, which the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will attend and which is likely to be dominated by Iraq and the Middle East.
On the Middle East Mr Cowen said the EU was "very strongly of the view that we should work for a ceasefire". He said Mr Bush told them in the White House that he recognised that America was part of this process, and that the quartet of the US, the EU, Russia and the UN should "work together collaboratively to try and bring forward the prospect of a two-state solution".
Mr Bush also made clear that "the final status issues are for negotiation among the parties", said Mr Cowen, referring to the right of return and land borders. It had seemed that Mr Bush had taken these out of the discussions at a meeting with Israeli prime minister Mr Ariel Sharon last month, igniting outrage in the Arab world.
US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell pressed the G8 for a new Iraq resolution in the UN Security Council that provides legitimacy to the interim government and "gives the UN an expanded role to get the country ready for elections".
The gap between the US and G8 countries opposed to the war clearly remains considerable, however. The US is seeking with UN help to create a caretaker government, but Washington will retain its grip on decision-making through US-appointed committees, according to US media reports.
France said it was willing to work "in a constructive spirit" on the UN resolution but "the occupation forces must accept that a real break take place" in the power structure, said its Foreign Minister Mr Michel Barnier, who also insisted that Baghdad must "have a say" on how the multinational forces in its territory are to be used.
Mr Cowen said the Security Council needed to come forward with a resolution "which will clearly map out the road to Iraqi sovereignty. We have had the differences of the past, we now have to deal with this situation," he said. "Hopefully the security situation would improve on the basis that Iraqis will come together behind supporting a UN resolution that confirms the international community is determining the restoration of sovereignty.
- The US governor of Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, yesterday said that US troops would leave the country if asked to by the caretaker Iraqi government due to take office on June 30th. He added, however, that he did not think that would happen.