“A war is not justified. This debate is distracting from the real interests of the United States,” Trittin told Die Welt. "Those are geo-strategic and oil interests. The critics are quite right with their motto ‘no war for oil’ "
German minister slams U.S. “war for oil” policy](Clarifying the Complex | Homepage | Thomson Reuters) Reuters
By David Crossland
BERLIN, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A German cabinet minister poured fuel on the flames of a transatlantic row over Iraq on Wednesday by saying the United States was pursuing its own oil interests in its conflict with Baghdad. Environment Minister Juergen Trittin made the accusation in an interview with Die Welt newspaper, remarks likely to put added strain on relations already at a post-war low over Germany’s opposition to any U.S.-led war to disarm Iraq. “A war is not justified. This debate is distracting from the real interests of the United States,” Trittin told Die Welt. “Those are geo-strategic and oil interests. The critics are quite right with their motto ‘no war for oil’”.
The comments are the most strident by a German minister since Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sacked his justice minister, Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, last September for reportedly likening U.S. President George W. Bush’s tactics to those of Adolf Hitler for exploiting war fears to distract from domestic woes. Trittin said the United States had shifted policy by declaring pre-emptive war a legitimate strategy and saying it was prepared to act even without a United Nations mandate.
“This clearly unilateral stance is the heart of the problem,” he said. "Even before the inspectors returned, Iraq did not pose a danger for its neighbours because inspectors up until 1998 destroyed more weapons than the 1991 Gulf War did.“The logic of threatening war is always one that ends up resulting in war,” Trittin said. Trittin is a member of the Greens party, junior coalition partner to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats. He took part in an anti-war demonstration in Berlin on Saturday. His comments are the latest salvo in a transatlantic exchange of fire between Schroeder’s government and the Bush administration, with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld an especially vocal critic of German policy.
POPULAR POLICY
Schroeder’s policy remains popular in Germany. A majority of German business leaders support his stance and see U.S. policy as driven by economic and strategic interests rather than any threat Iraq poses, a poll showed on Wednesday. The telephone poll of 899 business leaders conducted by the PSEPHOS Institute for Germany’s Handelsblatt business daily between January 28 and February 14 showed 60 percent did not believe a war against Iraq was justified.
Schroeder has backed away from his strict “No War” stance by signing up to a joint EU declaration on Monday that U.N. arms inspections could not go on indefinitely and war could be a last resort. Baghdad accuses Washington of preparing for a “war for oil” against Iraq, the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter. The United States says Iraq has violated U.N. resolutions requiring it to be rid of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Baghdad denies having any such weapons. Meanwhile German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer rejected as “nonsense” reports Washington wants to topple Schroeder’s government.
Asked about a column in the Washington Post that the U.S. government sought “regime change” in Berlin just as it wanted to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Fischer said: “Firstly I think that is nonsense, secondly it wouldn’t work. I understand something about German domestic politics and how one has to fight here in a democratic way for majorities.”