GERMANY: Mr Edmund Stoiber, the conservative challenger in next month's general election in Germany, did a U-turn on Iraq yesterday.
Days after he attacked the government's decision to keep Germany out of a possible strike against Iraq, he adopted the same position yesterday in a hastily-arranged press conference.
"The monopoly on decision-making and negotiation in this matter lies with the United Nations," said Mr Stoiber. "Unilateralism without consultation, voting and the mandate of the international community is incompatible with that." During a live television debate last weekend, Mr Stoiber attacked the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, after he said he was in favour of getting weapons inspectors back into Iraq but against ousting President Saddam Hussein.
Mr Wolfgang Schäuble, the conservative defence spokesman, stepped up the attack on Tuesday. He said it was "irresponsible" of Mr Schröder to rule out participating in a strike, a position he said a new conservative government would reconsider.
For three weeks, the conservatives have criticised Mr Schröder's position on Iraq as an "election trick".
Mr Stoiber's own about-turn yesterday came after a new opinion poll showed the Social Democrats (SPD) just 2 per cent behind the Christian Democrats (CDU). With less than a month to polling day, the poll said that neither the current SPD-Green government nor the CDU and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) have enough support to form a majority government. With German voters overwhelmingly against any military strike on Iraq, Mr Stoiber's new position is bound to have more electoral appeal.
Yesterday Mr Schröder strengthened his criticism of the US Vice-President, Mr Dick Cheney, saying it was wrong to "engineer a war rather than push for a return of weapons inspectors". "We don't need any more war in the Middle East, we need more peace," he added.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, called Mr Cheney's strategy "high risk and wrong". The German Defence Minister, Mr Peter Struck, warned the US against acting alone, saying it would "shatter" the alliance against terrorism.
Mr Michael Glos, parliamentary floor leader of the Christian Social Union and a close ally of Mr Stoiber, said the conservatives believed any military intervention in Iraq represented an "incalculable risk".