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Fischer: Military Intervention in Iraq Would Be Highly Risky Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (translation) Deutschlandfunk: Last night's meeting between the US President and the Saudi Ambassador to the United States again made it clear that there is still a lack of external support for the US Administration's tough approach - albeit expressed only verbally - on Iraq. Nor should the increasing opposition within America to such an approach be ignored. Here in Germany, the Federal Government, the Chancellor, the Defense Minister, and recently other Government members, too, have increasingly been warning against military intervention in Iraq and rejecting German involvement. Is this because of the election campaign or because there are signs that President Bush intends to push through his plan even in the face of international criticism? Fischer: As far as I am concerned this is not a new
debate; I have been expressing these arguments - all of which, by the
way, are being voiced in the American debate as well, particularly by
close colleagues such as Brent Scowcroft, formerly National Security Advisor
to President Bush senior, but also by former Secretary of State James
Baker and others. We are very worried that if rash steps are taken, if
things are not properly thought through, what we will get is not increased
peace and security in the Middle East, but the very opposite, and in a
highly explosive environment, too. Moreover, the regional conflict in
India and Pakistan over Kashmir has in no way been satisfactorily resolved,
and in Afghanistan, too, we are facing huge problems that have yet to
be solved; so altogether it must be said that if the analysis of the threat
from Iraq remains unchanged, a change of regime brought about by military
intervention would be highly risky, its repercussions scarcely foreseeable,
and that is why we reject such intervention.
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