Mainstream Shia and Sunni Arab politicians this week welcomed a new United Nations resolution unanimously agreed by the UN Security Council on Tuesday night, which promises broad powers to the interim government after June 30.
But the reaction of Iraq’s Kurds threatened a first political crisis for the new administration of Ayad Allawi.
The resolution allows the United States and coalition troops to stay until ”completion of the political process” or earlier ”if requested by Baghdad”.
Under the resolution, Iraqi leaders will control their own security forces but will not have the right to veto military operations by US-led multinational forces.
Washington has agreed to consult the interim government on ”sensitive offensive operations” involving multinational troops.
”The importance of this resolution for the Iraqis is really to take away the status of occupation, which has been very damaging,” said Adnan al-Khadhemi, a senior official with the Islamic Dawa Party.
”The UN resolution gives Iraqis the right to control our own destiny. The big powers who voted through this resolution must stick to their words.”
Dr Sa’ad Jawad, a senior official at the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said: ”It’s not full, 100% sovereignty, but it gives big authority on political affairs and security which makes it possible for the government to run the country.”
Dawa and the Supreme Council, whose support is drawn from Iraq’s majority Shia community, both hold prominent positions in the interim administration.
But there was stiff opposition to the new resolution from radical groups excluded from the governing structure. Sheikh Riad al-Khademi, a leading supporter of the militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, denounced the UN resolution as ”an attempt to anaesthetise the Iraqi people”.
He added: ”The UN is controlled by the Americans. Why should we believe their lies?”
Leaders of the two main Kurdish parties — supporters of the US campaign to remove Saddam Hussein — threatened to withdraw from the government in protest at the resolution’s failure to mention the interim Constitution.
Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democractic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan are angry at the refusal of US and British officials to include a reference to the document, which enshrines the rights of women and ethnic minorities, and the concept of federalism in Iraq.
Kurds, who comprise about 20% of the population, want to preserve the autonomy they have enjoyed in the north since the 1991 Gulf War.
But the Constitution, drawn up last March, met with the disapproval of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who objected to clauses that would in effect give the minority Kurds or Sunni Arabs a veto. He warned this week that he would oppose any reference to the constitution in the UN document.
Despite assurances from UN and US officials that the ”spirit of the constitution” is in the resolution, Kurds argued that its omission called into question its status.
Nasreen Berwari, the Minister of Public Works and a Kurd, said: ”Iraqi women fought hard to produce a liberal document that guarantees them equal rights. Was all that for nothing?”
Kurdish leaders were this week discussing their next step. — Â