The Iraqi crisis, with the massacre in Basra and the car bomb in Riyad, continues to monopolise the attention of the international press. “The victims in Basra include 23 children”, headlines the Herald Tribune (22/4). The three car bombs exploded in Iraq caused 68 dead and at least 98 injured, report John Burns and Christine Hauser in the article in question in which it is suggested that the attacks seem to bear the hallmarks of “an alliance between Al Qaeda and Iraqi extremists“. “Fragile truce in Falluja, the Iraqi police attacked in Basra”, is the headline in Le Monde (22/4), over an article in which Sophie Shihab points out that “after two weeks of combat, a ceasefire with a still uncertain future seems to have been established in Falluja with a deal reached by the American forces with the ‘notabilities’ of the Sunni city to the west of Baghdad on Monday 19 April. Some fifty families in Falluja who had taken refuge in the capital were authorized on Tuesday to return to their homes. They could be followed by two other groups, on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 April, if the truce holds (…). At Basra (in the south), some police stations and an Iraqi police-training academy were attacked on Wednesday by Shiite radicals. A provisional death toll of these attacks estimates 60 Iraqi dead”. La Croix of 20/4 analyses the significance of the announced withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, both inside and outside the international coalition. “The USA minimises the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq“, is the title of the article signed by Gilles Biassette in the French Catholic daily, in which it is pointed out that “Madrid’s decision has been criticised by some members of the coalition, such as Australia and Italy”. Joen-Crhristophe Ploquin, writing in the same paper, maintains that the date of 30 June proposed by the American President for the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis “could turn out to be less decisive than that of the [Iraqi] elections planned for 2005”. On the one hand, explains the author of the article, “the USA intends to maintain control of the military operations for a long time to come, something that will considerably diminish the authority of the Iraqi provisional executive (…). On the other hand, the UNO is not minded to play a leading political role in Baghdad, in spite of the urgent requests for it to do so being made by some countries involved in the field such as Italy or Great Britain”. Following the Spanish decision to pull out, Italy is asking the UNO for “more decisive steps”: so writes Vittorio E. Parsi, in the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire (21/4), pointing out that “it is an objective fact that Italy is now more exposed [to terrorism] than before”. The situation in the Middle East and Iraq continues to be in the forefront also for German commentators. Commenting on the planned withdrawal of Spanish troops, the Frankfurter Allgemeine (20/4) notes: “ Not only would the disintegration of the coalition not help Iraq, but for the enemies of Western democracies it would be equivalent to an invitation to exert with terror an influence on their policies, for example against Israel“. “ The consequences of the ignorant international policy of George W. Bush will directly affect the Europeans“, writes Martin Winter in the Frankfurter Rundschau (21/4). “ In the worst of scenarios, America may place the Atlantic between itself and the hotbeds of crisis. Europe has the conflagrations before its front door. That’s why it must act. It needs its own ideas and cannot be satisfied just with reacting to American actions. Time is pressing“. “ The Iraq trap Bush’s Vietnam” headlines the weekly Der Spiegel (19/4). Its cover story declares: “ America’s deepest fears can be summed up in one word: Vietnam. The superpower is now being confronted with its nightmare as a result of the chaos in Iraq. Many Americans already fear that their country will get bogged down in a guerrilla war“. With regard to the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq, El Pais of 21/4 judges former premier Aznar’s phone call to George W. Bush to express his disagreement with Zapatero’s decision “ an opportunistic and patently disloyal act“. “ Is this asks the Spanish daily the loyalty he so often claimed from his political opponents?“.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1290 N.ro relativo : 30 Data pubblicazione : 24/04/04
