UN private meeting to discuss Iraq resolution

The United Nations Security Council is holding private meetings today on the Iraq resolution introduced by the United States and Britain.

A public council meeting will be held tomorrow to hear from UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who helped put together the interim government that will assume power on June 30 when the US-British occupation ends.

“We’re getting near the end of the process and we’d like to vote soon,” said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the US Mission to the United Nations.

In Paris yesterday, US president George Bush and French president Jacques Chirac sought to move beyond bitter differences over Iraq, with both suggesting a UN deal on post-occupation Iraq may be close.

But the French leader again doubted America’s justification for the war and said the situation remained “extremely precarious.”

Still, despite exhibits of testiness on both sides at a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace, Chirac told Bush at their private meeting that he believed the evolving UN resolution would pass unanimously, according to a US official.

US secretary of state Colin Powell said Iraq’s new prime minister had written a detailed letter to members of the security council spelling out the relationship between the new Iraq interim government and coalition forces.

The letter from Iyad Allawi addresses one of the thorniest issues in the June 30 handover of authority to an Iraqi government.

President Bush has said the new government will have full sovereignty, but the United States plans to retain command of its military forces in the country.

Powell, briefing reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday, said Allawi’s letter proposed setting up Iraqi committees that would monitor and work closely with a US-led coalition forces throughout the nation.

It makes clear that Iraq will have jurisdiction over its own military forces, but not that of other nations, including the United States, said Powell, who was accompanying Bush on his trip from Rome to Paris.

Powell said the Allawi letter made clear that Iraq wanted a coalition military presence to remain. He called it “a recognition that they can’t provide for their own security yet”.

Powell said Allawi’s letter went a long way to meeting the concerns of security council members over military arrangements.

France, which has veto power on the council, has stressed the need for Iraq’s government to have authority over its security.

“This is a major step forward,” Powell said. “Receipt of the Allawi letter pushes us much closer to the finish line.”

Powell said copies of the letter would be delivered to council members as they tried to come up with a final version of a UN resolution dealing with Iraq’s relationship with international forces.

The resolution would be expected to make a reference to the letter.