---

Agencies
The Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Tuesday May 20, 2003

---

The UN security council will today meet in a closed-door session to discuss the third draft of a resolution lifting sanctions against Iraq.

The new draft, proposed by the US, Britain and Spain, gives the UN a clearly defined role in establishing a democratic government and increases the stature of a UN envoy in Iraq.

The US is pressing for a vote on the resolution tomorrow, which looks likely to be passed.

France, Russia and China - the permanent members who opposed the US-led war in Iraq - had expressed reservations over the first draft's naming of the US and Britain as "occupying powers" and handing over control of the country's oil revenues to them.

It also relegated the UN to an advisory role, alongside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A revised draft circulated last week beefed up the role of a UN envoy in Iraq

The third version - which can be altered at any point up to the vote - also leaves the US and Britain, as occupying powers, firmly in control of Iraq and its oil wealth until "an internationally recognised, representative government" takes control.

Neither France, Russia nor China has talked about using a veto against the resolution but any one of them could abstain, a possibility raised yesterday by the French president, Jacques Chirac.

"The president said he was convinced the text can be markedly improved so everyone can look upon it favourably," said Mr Chirac's spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna.

"As it stands, the role envisaged for the United Nations is unsatisfactory," she said.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, has insisted the resolution is in its "final form" but Pakistan's UN ambassador, Munir Akram, the current council president, said he expects "fairly intensive discussion" in today's meeting, Associated Press reported.

The council is trying to avoid another diplomatic row after the wrangling over the US-led war, which the majority of members opposed.

"We are now examining ways and means to rebuild Iraq, to restore peace and security in Iraq, and the approach of all members is a constructive role toward that end," Mr Akram said.

He said his country believed the UN's role has been strengthened.

But there was some grumbling at US efforts to push through a new resolution in 48 hours.

Russia's UN ambassador, Sergey Lavrov, said the new draft "contains a lot of technical things" that need to be studied and some issues still need further clarification - including how long the occupation will last.

Britain's UN ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, expressed hope that council members "will now find it possible to move forward by consensus on a program for the post-conflict operation of the situation in Iraq that includes a very distinct and vital role for the United Nations".

The final draft makes a number of substantive changes, trying to address many countries' concerns that the UN was being relegated to coordinating humanitarian aid, helping with reconstruction and having a very limited political role.

In other key changes, the UN oil-for-food humanitarian programme would be phased out over six months, instead of four months, meeting a concern of the French and the Russians.

They wanted more time to wind up contracts and hand over to Iraq the humanitarian programme, which had been feeding 90% of Iraq's 24 million people before the war.

The new text asks the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to appoint a special representative with "independent powers" to work with the US and Britain "to facilitate a process leading to an internationally recognised, representative government of Iraq". The previous texts referred to a UN "special coordinator", a lower status.

It also leaves out an explicit endorsement of US and British occupation of Iraq for an initial 12 months. Some council members did not want to have the UN legitimise the results of a war that the majority of the council did not support.

---

Direct Link:
--http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,959866,00.html

---