New Iraq blueprint released

The United States and Britain have released a revised resolution on post-occupation Iraq that would give the new interim government control over the Iraqi army and police and end the mandate for the multi-national force by January 2006 at the latest.

The occupying powers, which will relinquish sovereignty on June 30, hoped the new draft, circulated early today, would allay a variety of concerns raised by United Nations Security Council members about the new government’s powers and how much say Iraqis had over US-led forces intended to keep the peace.

Two major concerns about the initial draft – the absence of a termination date for the US-led multi-national force and the failure to state that the new Iraqi government will have authority over its security forces – were addressed in the new draft.

But France, Germany and Russia, which criticised the initial draft, raised questions about the revised resolution during three hours of closed-door security council discussions, council diplomats said.

Several other council members, including China, Chile and Algeria, said the new draft was an improvement, but called for additional changes, especially in spelling out the military relationship.

“We still need to have language that would say that the Iraqi government’s point of view will prevail over the MNF (multi-national force) in case of major military operations,” said Algeria’s UN ambassador Abdallah Baali, the only Arab member of the council.

But US deputy ambassador James Cunningham insisted this did not belong in the resolution: “That's really an issue that we need to work out with the Iraqis.”

Cunningham said the US-British amendments “focus the resolution text more clearly on the objective that is before the council, which is to mark the end of the occupation and the restoration of full sovereignty to Iraq".

The amendments also clarified the UN role, the duration of the multi-national force, and other issues, he said.

But China’s UN ambassador Wang Guangya said “full sovereignty has not been fully reflected”.

French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere also told the council that Paris would like to see the areas in which the interim government would exercise fully sovereignty spelled out in the resolution.

“We are not satisfied with the new version,” the French diplomat said. “We need clarification.”

Many council members said they wanted to hear from UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, who helped put together the interim government, and Iraq’s new leadership.

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 tomorrow.

The new draft notes for the first time “that the presence of the multi-national force in Iraq is at the request of the incoming interim government”, but it does not specifically give the new leaders the right to ask the force to leave, although US and British leaders have said they will go if asked.

Instead, it anticipates that the incoming government will make a formal request “to retain the presence of the multi-national force” and leaves room for the date of that letter to be included in the resolution.

The new interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, said today the multi-national force would be asked to stay on and promised that Iraq’s security forces would be a ”pivotal partner” with US and other coalition troops in the fight to restore security to Iraq.

The new draft states clearly for the first time that Iraqi forces “will operate under the authority of the interim government of Iraq and its successors” and that the Iraqi police will be under control of the ministry of interior.

The resolution also states that the Iraqi forces “will progressively play a greater role and ultimately assume responsibility for the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq”.