Just at the moment when the Russian president went on a visit to Berlin

Just at the moment when the Russian president went on a visit to Berlin and Paris, German authorities confirmed that, together with France, they were preparing a plan for the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. This news was first reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel. According to information received by journalists from government sources, Berlin and Paris - the main opponents of the war in the Persian Gulf - will propose to the UN to send a peacekeeping contingent to Iraq, whose soldiers will have to help inspectors conduct full-scale inspections; At the same time, inspections should be expanded. In addition, it is planned to make the whole of Iraq a free-fly zone (currently only the border areas in the north and south of the country), as well as tighten economic sanctions. The United States, according to Franco-German strategists, can for now continue to build up its strike force in the region in order to maintain pressure on Baghdad.
During a conference in Munich (see page 11), the head of the German Ministry of Defense, Peter Struck, told reporters that such a plan really exists. According to him, the joint initiative of Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac will be presented at a meeting of the UN Security Council on February 14 (the day when Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei will report on the results of the inspections; it is believed that after this war will become inevitable). And the French Foreign Ministry said yesterday that there is no secret plan, but only a number of proposals that French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has already voiced at the UN. The United States received this news with obvious displeasure. It all started when Donald Rumsfeld asked Peter Struck in Munich to tell him what the essence of this plan was. “We are not ready to discuss this yet,” he replied. After this, Mr. Rumsfeld, and then Secretary of State Colin Powell, said that the Franco-German peace initiative would not help matters. Mr. Powell suggested that Germany and France “read UN Security Council Resolution 1441 once again.” Following Washington, the main US ally in Europe, Great Britain, also criticized the yet unborn plan.
Meanwhile, as the head of the Russian Ministry of Defense Sergei Ivanov said, if the UN Security Council supports this idea, then he “has almost no doubt that Moscow will support this proposal.” And he added that Russia is even ready to provide planes and inspectors to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
ANTON B-CHERNYKH

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 22/P dated 02/10/2003, p. 2

France and Germany propose peace plan