U.N. draft gives Iraq more say
UNITED NATIONS - A revised U.N. Security Council resolution gives Iraq's interim leaders control of the army and police, but council diplomats said the document still doesn't properly spell out the new government's sovereignty.
The United States and Britain circulated a revised blueprint Tuesday that would end their occupation and hand over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30. It places command of the Iraqi army and police under the new government, and would end the mandate for a multinational force by January 2006 - two major changes.
Those changes addressed major concerns about the initial draft from several Security Council members, among them France, Germany, Russia and Chile.
But some of the 15-member council still were still not satisfied. Algeria said a final resolution must clearly give the Iraqis final say over the multinational force, or MNF.
"We still need to have language that would say that the Iraqi government's point of view will prevail over the MNF in case of major military operations," Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali said.
U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham insisted this didn't belong in the resolution. "That's really an issue that we need to work out with the Iraqis," he said.
France, Germany, Russia and Chile also raised questions during closed-door Security Council discussions, council diplomats said.
"We are not satisfied with the new version," a French diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We need clarification."
China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said the restoration of "full sovereignty has not been fully reflected" in the text. That view was echoed by French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, according to the French diplomat.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari was heading to New York to press for full sovereignty, and he was expected to meet the council as early as Thursday.
The original resolution endorsed the timetable for Iraq's transition to democratic government. Under the timetable, elections will be held by Jan. 31, 2005, for a transitional national assembly, a constitution will be drafted and put to a vote during the year, and a new Iraqi government will be elected by Dec. 31, 2005.
