US wants Security Council to help pick up the pieces

By Maggie Farley and Robin Wright at the United Nations

March 21 2003



As the clock to war ticked down, the United States was already mapping plans for rebuilding Iraq - and quietly asking for the United Nations Security Council's help.

The US and Britain indicated they planned to seek up to three new resolutions concerning the political and physical reconstruction of Iraq. "We will need the Security Council in the future as we develop new resolutions that will deal with the aftermath of a conflict," the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said.

The US National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, plans to visit the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, soon to discuss a future UN role in Iraq, a UN spokesman said. No date has been set.

While the Security Council agreed that Iraq's dire humanitarian needs must be dealt with immediately, the overtures came a bit too soon for some members still smarting from months of wrangling over whether Iraq must be disarmed by force.

"It is inappropriate for the aggressors to now act as if they are also the saviours," said one diplomat. "We still have a bad taste in our mouths and cannot swallow this new plan from them just yet."

One diplomatic solution could be to "launder" the first US-British draft resolution by sending it to Mr Annan, who would incorporate his own proposals and then ask the current Security Council president, Guinea, or another council member to introduce it formally.

The new resolution could come as soon as today, US and UN officials said. The first resolution would put Iraq's current reserves of $US40billion ($68billion) in UN-controlled oil money toward humanitarian relief. It assumes that the current Iraqi government will dissolve and would redirect the authority to spend the oil revenues to Mr Annan. The plan would only cover several months - the US plan originally said 90 days - and focus on immediate humanitarian needs.

A second resolution being discussed would cover a longer period and may seek UN

endorsement for a transitional administration until an Iraqi government is in place.

The UN hopes to quickly revive its humanitarian programs in Iraq, which were suspended on Monday. On Wednesday, Mr Annan painted a grim picture of a country that had suffered for years under strict sanctions and repeated war. "The conflict that is now clearly about to start can only make things worse - perhaps much worse," he said.

More than 60 per cent of Iraq's 24million people rely on UN food rations, and the elaborate distribution network will probably be disrupted during war.

Mr Annan told the council that the UN had requested more than $US123million from donors to prepare for the effects of war but had received only $US34million so far.

The US had positioned $US16.5million worth of food rations and relief supplies in the region and had pledged $US60million to UN agencies and aid groups, said the US Ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte. The British Ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, said London had earmarked $US110million for humanitarian aid, and might announce more later.

The third resolution, addressing Iraq's reconstruction, would be the most comprehensive and thus the most controversial. It would ask the Security Council to consider how UN agencies should be involved in Iraq, what governance role the international community could have, and the security role the US and others might play. It may also determine who gets control of oil and other resources that the US has administered in the past.

During Mr Greenstock's address to the council on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany left the chamber.

Los Angeles Times, agencies

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/20/1047749879984.html