"They want our money and our soldiers, but they are not willing to share real power, either with us or the Iraqis." So said a European diplomat at the United Nations ahead of today's opening session of the world organisation in New York. Iraq will dominate proceedings this week, both in speeches to the General Assembly, beginning today with President Bush, and in negotiations on a new Security Council resolution.
This is understandable, for the issue crystallises key questions concerning international order and the UN's future role in underpinning it. But it is to be hoped the need for reform and adaptation of the UN is not obscured by wrangling over Iraq. Mr Bush has an opportunity to set a more constructive and co-operative tone in today's speech, changing the widespread perception that he is asking for UN help only because the United States cannot handle Iraq on its own, but that it is unwilling to cede real power there.
This means there is a good case for driving a hard bargain with the Bush administration on troops and a timetable for transferring sovereignty back to the Iraqis under the auspices of the United Nations. It is clear from the weekend meeting between Germany, France and Britain in Berlin that there is no agreement as yet between them to broker an acceptable compromise. President Chirac says he wants to see power transferred within months to an Iraqi administration and a timetable laid down for elections next year. He will not, however, veto a US resolution that could go sufficiently far to secure troops from Turkey, India and Pakistan. The US is unwilling to relinquish control in the belief that a premature transition would undeservedly favour Iraqi exile groups with insufficient roots in the country, even though the US-appointed Governing Council is campaigning for a transfer of power. The council has now announced plans for privatisation and foreign investment in Iraq on highly favourable terms.
The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, has led the calls for the UN's reform and revitalisation, underlining that this is very much the prerogative of its member-states. It is a timely and essential demand for change. It comes when the world is at a crossroads, with a restructuring of international relations under way, as the European Union's foreign policy representative, Mr Javier Solana, puts it in The Irish Times today. As he says, "no single actor can deal alone with the complex challenges facing us".
There must be a renewed commitment to joint international action and solidarity in the face of world poverty and underdevelopment, HIV/AIDS, terrorism and associated threats to security. The EU, shortly to encompass 25 states and 460 million inhabitants, has an important part to play in this restructuring within its own region and throughout the world. It faces a real challenge of co-ordinating its approach to the Iraq issue and joining that to the new international responsibilities it is taking on.