Bush says handover cannot be rushed
( 2003-09-19 16:55) (MSNBC)
President Bush, who was discussing the situation in Iraq with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Thursday, said that the transfer of power cannot be rushed.
“The constitution must be written and there will be free elections. Then sovereignty will occur once the Iraqi people are able to express their opinions,” he said at a news conference at the outset of the meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
Both Chirac and Schroeder strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, causing a rift with the United States and their European Union partner Britain.
The German-French summit comes before both leaders meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Berlin on Saturday in search of a common European position on postwar Iraq. Russia and China also want a quick restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty, though perhaps not as fast as the French proposal.
Chirac also voiced support for an offer by Schroeder to help train new Iraqi security forces in Germany, which Schroeder renewed at Thursday’s news conference outside the chancellery in Berlin.
Chirac said it was “self-evident that, since the chancellor reaffirmed this position here, France takes the same position” — though he stopped short of explicitly offering such training in France.
Schroeder, in an interview published Thursday, called for a “road map” for handing over authority to an Iraqi government.
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