UN adopts US resolution on Iraq

The UN Security Council today unanimously adopted a US resolution aimed at attracting more troops and money to stabilise Iraq and put the war-battered country on the road to independence.

US officials had been concerned that after six weeks of intense US diplomatic campaigning, the resolution might get only the minimum nine ”yes” votes needed for adoption.

But in a final day of intense lobbying, led by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Washington picked up support from key opponents of the US-led war against Iraq – France, Russia and Germany.

A day earlier, the three countries had failed to get the United States to include in the resolution a timetable for restoring Iraq’s sovereignty.

The United States also won backing from China and Pakistan, and finally and most surprisingly, from Syria, the only Arab nation on the Security Council and a staunch opponent of the US-led war.

Earlier Thursday, a US official had said an abstention by Syria, rather than a vote against, would be “a huge win.”

Germany, France and Russia – the leading opponents to the US-led war in Iraq - announced after a 45-minute conversation among their leaders earlier today that they would vote in favour of the resolution in a bid to bring international solidarity to the reconstruction effort.

The announcement by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at a European Union summit in Brussels marked a dramatic shift by the three countries.

“We agreed that the resolution is really an important step in the right direction,” Schroeder said after the conference call with presidents Jacques Chirac of France and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

“Many things have been included from what we proposed. This led us … to jointly agree to the resolution.”

Putin, who was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a special observer at an Islamic summit, said the leaders had agreed on a common position, but he did not give details.

French officials said the European support would not translate into the funds and troops sought by the United States to ease the burden of American forces in Iraq.

US officials expressed hope that it would translate into additional EU money for the country’s reconstruction.

“Really the goal is to try to get something more than a piece of paper, to try to get money and troops. We hope the resolution combined with the upcoming donor conference will help,” a US official said.