Global Policy Forum

By Julia Preston

Germany will not insist on a second Security Council resolution if there is a new debate on whether to authorize war in Iraq, Gunter Pleuger, the German ambassador to the United Nations, said today. But it believes that weapons inspectors are making progress, he added, and should be given time to do their work.

In an interview, Mr. Pleuger, leaning closer to the United States on a contentious issue than to France and several other Council powers, said that a second round of voting in the Council would be "desirable but not necessary" if Iraq commits obvious breaches of past resolutions. France, Russia and China contend that a second vote is required under the terms of Resolution 1441, the Nov. 8 measure that set up the inspections, before the United States can say that it has the United Nations' legal endorsement to start a war to disarm Iraq.

Mr. Pleuger spoke in the first days after Germany took a seat as a nonpermanent, non-veto-bearing member of the 15-nation Council for a two-year term, just as the body is confronting decisions about whether the inspections are working to eliminate illegal weapons programs in Iraq. He maneuvered carefully through the diplomatic thicket that Germany faced after Chancellor Gerhard Schrí¶der, in the final weeks of a closely contested German election campaign this fall, antagonized the Bush administration by ruling out sending German troops to support any military action in Iraq.

The ambassador made it clear that Germany will take independent positions, balancing pressures from the United States, which is eager to show that President Saddam Hussein is trying to deceive the inspectors, and the views of other Council nations that are more optimistic that the inspections can avert war.

Germany, which joined the Council Jan. 1, is one of four major European nations on it, along with Britain and France, permanent members with veto power, and Spain, another new nonpermanent member.

Even Britain, the closest ally of the United States on the Council, has said it wants a second resolution before going to war. American officials say that Resolution 1441 by itself can serve as a legal foundation for a military assault if Iraq commits new violations.

Mr. Pleuger, echoing the view of Secretary General Kofi Annan, said the inspections seem to be proceeding unhindered by Baghdad. "Kofi has said there's no reason right now to move from inspections to military action, and right now, in this situation, we feel the same way," Mr. Pleuger said, although he suggested that Germany was disappointed by gaps in Iraq's Dec. 7 declaration on its arms programs.

Germany is walking a fine line here, seeking to avoid further damage to its relations with Washington but constrained by Mr. Schrí¶der's fragile political position at home, where his opposition to participating in a war in Iraq is key to holding his coalition together. Complicating his task are voices within the governing coalition, especially in the Green Party that adamantly oppose German acquiescence to American-led military action against Baghdad. In an interview in the magazine Der Spiegel on Jan. 6, Mr. Schrí¶der repeated his refusal to deploy troops and added, "We will do everything we can to avoid war."

Mr. Pleuger said Germany's vote will "depend on the political situation in which the decision is being taken. And nobody can foresee that now." He said he expected that the report that Hans Blix and Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief weapons inspectors, are scheduled to deliver on Jan. 27 will bring the Council up to date but not be a conclusive evaluation of Iraq's cooperation. The inspectors "have said that they need some time to complete the inspections and therefore, I think, it is highly unlikely that on the 27th we can draw already final conclusions about the work that has been done up to that date," Mr. Pleuger said.

The Bush administration is at odds with most if not all other Council members on the pace of the inspections. The United States, keen to have the option of attacking in February or March when the weather is still relatively cool in Iraq, has prodded the inspectors to quicken their work, and regards the Jan. 27 report as a potential moment of decision.

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