The Wages of Mankind
PARIS: French President Jacques Chirac is playing his cards close to his chest on prospects for compromise over Iraq as he heads to Berlin for Saturday’s summit with the leaders of Britain and Germany, analysts say. Chirac will meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for what the French leader’s spokeswoman called “an informal meeting on European issues and current international topics.” But most commentators have named Iraq as the likely focus of the talks, with France and Germany already having proposed amendments to a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution on Iraq currently on the table. Chirac has left political observers guessing as to his next move, with some saying that compromise is indeed in the air on the issue of Iraq. “There does seem to be a general willingness on both sides of the Atlantic not to have a split over the resolution,” said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a Paris-based think tank. “The British, the French and the Germans — by getting together — will help craft the ultimate resolution,” he added. “People are finally talking to each other instead of beating each other up.”.” Talks last weekend in Geneva on the issue between the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — failed to produce a compromise text.t.