The Bush administration is preparing a draft security council resolution that would reduce the United Nations to a marginal role advising the US on running Iraq until the creation of a new government, diplomats and administration officials said yesterday.
The document is likely to provoke another serious split in the security council when it is presented, as early as next week. It represents another defeat for Tony Blair and his attempt to push the US towards a more multilateral approach to solving postwar problems.
At their Belfast summit this month Blair persuaded George Bush to agree to a joint statement agreeing that the UN would play a ”vital role” in rebuilding Iraq. However, it was immediately clear there was no agreement on what ”vital” meant. British officials acknowledged yesterday that the consultative role envisaged in the US draft was not what Mr Blair had in mind.
The draft resolution would end sanctions on Iraq and recognise the US-led coalition as the principal authority in the country, pending the creation of an Iraqi interim authority (IIA). It calls on the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to appoint a special coordinator who would, alongside others, advise the American administrator, Jay Garner.
”The big issue is the balance between the elements,” said a security council diplomat. ”It is my understanding that the weighting is pretty heavily towards the coalition.”
A US administration official said the details of the draft were still being worked out but that at a ”principals meeting” of the president’s national security team at the White House on Wednesday a decision had been made to present a single broad resolution, defining roles in post-war Iraq, rather than a series of piecemeal resolutions phasing out UN control, as the state department had suggested.
The White House has already supported the Pentagon in blocking a role for UN weapons inspectors in searching Iraq for traces of weapons of mass destruction. The administration claims the job can be done by US-led teams.
The American official said the draft resolution would be circulated in the security council next week or the week after, adding that the US was braced for a fight. The council was deadlocked in a bitter dispute for months before the war, as Russia, France and China vowed to block a resolution authorising military action.
”This is going to be every bit as nasty as the last one,” he said. A European diplomat agreed, saying: ”This is going to be a very hard debate.”
One of the key issues in the debate will be control over Iraq’s oil revenues. Under the resolution international organisations – possibly including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank – would sit on an advisory board.
However, day-to-day operations would be managed by a former Shell Oil executive, Phillip Carroll, according to the Wall Street Journal yesterday.
The draft resolution represents a victory for the Pentagon over the state department, which had lobbied for the UN to be given a more substantial role in administering Iraq’s oil wealth and in managing the transition to a democratic Iraqi government.
”At the principals meeting there was the phased approach of [the department of] state, and another approach that the [defence department] suggested,” an administration official said. ”And yes, a decision was made to go for a single resolution.”
A British official said yesterday that London would continue to play a role in trying to shape details of the document before it was circulated, and then to broker a compromise in the security council in an attempt to avoid deepening the rift left by the war.
A battle has broken out in the council even before the US resolution is presented. The US and Britain are attempting to convince Mr Annan to send an envoy to Iraq immediately to observe the US-managed political consultations aimed at laying the foundations for the IIA.
The UN secretary general has appointed a special adviser on Iraq – Rafeeuddin Ahmed, a Pakistani diplomat – but so far he has not sent him to the country, arguing that such a mission requires the approval of the security council. – Guardian Unlimited Â