The French position on the proposed international conference on Iraq is the foreign policy issue that most draws the attention of Le Monde (29/9), which sums up the position adopted by the French government on the question as follows: “Yes, but…”. “France says the summary of the article, signed by Claire Tréan is favourable to the rapid organization of an international conference on Iraq, a plan that the US administration has unexpectedly backed. But the French Foreign Minister has proposed an agenda that has little chance of meeting with Washington’s assent. Paris explains the author of the article wants this conference to be placed under the aegis of the UNO. Barnier hopes that the question of a withdrawal of coalition troops would be discussed. He asks at the same time that the representatives of groups now engaged in the armed resistance participate in this meeting”. The question of “sensationalist terror” in Iraq is commented on by William Safire ( Herald Tribune, 28/9), who observes with regard to the use terrorists are making of the “ weapon of hostage taking”: “We are dealing here with the most brutal weapon of propaganda ever contemplated. Strong governments seek to oppose it by refusing to pay money or political ransom to the hostage-takers/killers. The non-partisan response of the media ought to be that of reporting the events through the consciousness of manipulation, and not in such a way as to overlook the reaction of Iraq and world Muslim indignation”. “Iraq: an attempted ‘way out’“: is the front-page headline in La Croix (28/9), which sums up in these terms the tragic international situation: “The question says the paper’s editorial is not to know whether the Americans will leave Iraq, but when, and also in what state they will leave the country when they do so. It is by now clear that their presence is no guarantee of security”. The “chaos” of Iraq, notes Frappat, “is deteriorating the closer we draw to two electoral deadlines. One of these deadlines is certain: the presidential elections in the USA will take place on 2 November. The other is still very much up in the air: the elections in Iraq, fixed for January 2005. Each day that passes concludes the editorialist makes more improbable the organization of a serene, democratic, peaceful and pluralist ballot”. The episode of the liberation in Iraq of the two Italian aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta is commented on at length in the Spanish papers, which report the controversy about whether any ransom was paid for their release. ABC ( 30/9) carries the headline: “An Italian MP breaks the pact of silence on the payment of ransom”. Cristiana Cabrejas writes: “[Italian Foreign] Minister Frattini thinks that the liberation of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta was possible thanks to the prestige that Italy enjoys among the Arab countries”. The homegrown terrorism of ETA, on the other hand, occupies the pages of El Periódico ( 30/9), which carries a report on an “Operation against the terrorism of ETA“. Ana Garbati reports from Bilbao of the arrest “of presumed insiders of the ETA infrastructure that deals with facilitating the escape of members of the organization and the transport of weapons”. Iraq is also at the centre of the comments of the German press. Die Welt (28/9) contains an editorial by Martin van Creveld, professor of military history in Jerusalem, which asserts: “ Within a population that knows the allies better than the other way round the Iraqis who speak English far outnumber the Americans who speak Arabic the allies are becoming ever more isolated and hence vulnerable. The result will be in all probability a unilateral decision to withdraw. Both in consideration of the list of victims and that of the drain on state reserves, the principle according to which the sooner this decision is taken the better, holds good“. On the much-debated question of Germany’s domestic economic crisis and the reforms that are needed to reverse the trend, but opposed by German workers, Karl Graf Hohenthal writes as follows in the same paper (30/9): “ The security of jobs and wages can only exist if Germans are able to roll up their sleeves, work hard and be daring with creative ideas. They must punish the politicians, bureaucrats and trades-union that place obstacles in their way“. The economic crisis also affects the German Church, which depends for its livelihood on the “Kirchensteuer”, the church tax that taxpayers pay on the basis of their confession. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (30/9) comments as follows: “ Only now, at a time of high unemployment, falling wages and declining numbers of Catholics, is the pious illusion evaporating that money can keep on its feet a Church whose substance is dissolving. And it’s right that this should be so, in spite of the crisis that is striking the workers involved. For instead of administering and managing spiritual assistance on the basis of revenue, simple Catholics must assume the responsibility to take the faith into society“.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1238 N.ro relativo : 68 Data pubblicazione : 01/10/2004
