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		24 - 30 October 2002 Issue No. 609 International	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Deep freeze
Germans face a diplomatic cold shoulder in response to their adamant stance against military action in Iraq, writes Youssef Fadel from Berlin

In September German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his Social Democrat party were reelected by a slim margin. One of the key issues that propelled the once trailing Schroeder into the lead by the end of the elections was the forthcoming war in Iraq. Schroeder and his party were emphatic in their opposition to any military action in Iraq. His former justice minister, Herta Daeubler- Gmelin, went so far as to compare the Bush campaign against Saddam Hussein to a strategy once used by Hitler. Needless to say the Bush administration did not welcome the comments and the relationship between the two powers has yet to recover.
In an interview in the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Richard Perle, a senior official from the US Department of Defence, stated that "It would be best if Schroeder resigned. But he's obviously not going to do that." In addition to suggesting that the German chancellor should resign to repair US-German relations, Perle also suggested that the Germans had sabotaged their own efforts to gain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Summarising the effects of the election on US-German relations, Perle stated "I have never seen a relationship between two close partners be so quickly and so badly damaged as it has been by Schroeder's election campaign." Perle is the chairman of the advisory of the Defence Policy Board, but he insists that the comments in the Handelsblatt interview were his personal views and not that of the administration.
However, his statements have been the harshest in a barrage of negative comments from high-ranking US officials. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice also described the relationship between Germany and the United States as being "poisoned" by the election comments.
After the German elections, FBI Director Robert Mueller paid the first official US visit to Germany after the elections. The meetings held between German Minister of the Interior Otto Schily, and Mueller were billed as an effort to improve cooperation on intelligence related to 11 September. Instead, the issue of Iraq took center stage.
According to sources, Mueller attempted to convince Schily of a link between Iraq and Al-Qa'eda. Many saw this as the Bush administration trying to get the Germans to revoke their election promises on Iraq. Mueller focused on gaining German support for the US belief that Iraq is directly linked to Al- Qa'eda through Mohamed Atta, the suspected pilot of one of the planes in the 11 September attacks. According to intelligence reports Atta met an Iraqi diplomat in the Czech capital of Prague. The Germans remained skeptical of the Al-Qa'eda-Iraqi relationship and Mueller returned to Washington without the German support he wanted.
However, former US ambassador to Berlin, Richard Holbrook described the current tensions between Washington and Berlin in terms of the personal relationship between Bush and Schroeder. Holbrook said that "personalising policy can be helpful, as was the case of Yeltsin and Clinton or Bush and Putin. But sometimes it leads into the wrong direction. That is the case with Germany now."
On 30 October, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is scheduled to visit Washington in an attempt to diffuse tensions. In contrast to Schroeder, Fischer has no "personal" problems with his counterpart in Washington. The idea that the personal relationship between Schroeder and Bush needs improvement seems to carry some weight. Traditionally, German leaders make their first state trip to Paris. However, this time Schroeder made his first state trip to London. In the meetings with Blair, Schroeder asked the British leader to mediate between himself and Bush.
The Bush administration is ardent in its policy of not dealing with the Germans until they decide to join the coalition against Iraq. Reports state that the Bush administration has warned Schroeder that he would simply be ignored if he decides to visit the US. The protocols of diplomacy call for heads of state to be greeted in a official capacity. If Schroeder were to visit the US he would be denied this by Bush. This new policy applies to all German officials as Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld warned his counterpart German Defence Minister Peter Struck, at the recent NATO ministerial meeting in Warsaw.
In his press conference in the Polish capital, Rumsfeld described Germany as the "one who fell in a hole and is still digging". The US Secretary of Defence then told Germany "to get out of this hole".
Zbignew Brzezinski, national security advisor to former US President Jimmy Carter, believes that the strong statement made by Gerhard marks a broader change in European politics. After 12 years of reunification, Germans appear to be gaining confidence in their country and their role in Europe. That confidence is being reflected in their policy. According to Brzezinski the German position on Iraq reflects the "self-confidence" of a major European power, even more so than France or Britain.
So far there are no scheduled meetings between the US president and the German chancellor before the Prague NATO Summit in November. However, in the coming weeks Fischer will meet Powell. It is impossible to forecast the success of the Fischer mission, but the importance of the US-German relationship cannot be overstated. Given the rising importance of a reunified Germany and Bush's need to have international support, politically if not militarily, it is clear that both sides may have to make concessions.

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