US expects to win UN vote on Iraq tomorrow

1.00pm

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and Britain scheduled a UN Security Council vote on Iraq's future for Tuesday (Washington time) and France, which had baulked earlier, signalled its approval of the resolution.

"We are putting it to a vote on Tuesday afternoon," US Ambassador John Negroponte said on Monday after consultations on the resolution marking the transfer of power by the American-led occupation to an Iraqi interim government.

French UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the "text is going in the right direction" and he was awaiting final instructions from his government.

France, backed by Germany, had submitted a controversial amendment that would have given Iraq a virtual veto over major US military actions.

The United States rejected this but later amended the text to reflect US-Iraqi military arrangements that call for a special committee to reach agreement on security issues, including "sensitive offensive operations."

Germany's UN ambassador, Gunter Pleuger, said his country accepted the compromise.

"This new paragraph meets, I would say, 90 per cent of our concerns and I think we can live with that," he said.

Control of the 160,000 US-led troops in Iraq was the most contentious issue in the draft resolution that will give international endorsement to the new interim Iraqi government and authorize a multinational force under American command.

At a special session on Sunday, the Security Council received separate letters on military arrangements from US Secretary of State Powell and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that will inform an annex to the resolution.

They pledged that the American commander and Iraqi leaders would consult on and co-ordinate "fundamental security and policy issues including policy on sensitive offensive operations" through a new national security committee.

However, the letters do not spell out what happens in case of a disagreement, prompting France to advocate that Iraq had the right to block a major US campaign.

The draft resolution also gives the interim Iraqi government the right to order US troops to leave Iraq and makes clear the mandate of the multinational force would expire in January 2006 when a permanent Iraqi government is expected to take office.

The latest text also strengthened language on Iraq's sovereignty, such as Baghdad's right "to exercise full authority and control over financial and natural resources."

It also tried to accommodate Russia's request for an international conference by saying the Security Council would consider one if requested by Iraq.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, visiting Mexico City, praised the draft. "The resolution has already been modified substantially in a positive direction. We have every reason to think that this could culminate in a positive result," he told reporters.


UN envoy Lakhkar Brahimi, who helped shape the interim Iraqi government, told the council of his difficulties but said he thought the leadership was acceptable to most Iraqis, albeit with misgivings.

He called on the new government to reach out to critics and "resist the temptation to characterize all who have opposed the occupation as terrorists and bitter-enders."

Brahimi mentioned the importance of an interim constitution, signed in March, but there was no chance that the resolution will mention it as Iraqi Kurds are demanding. They are threatening to quit the government unless the measure endorses the autonomy granted to them these laws.

"We are not bluffing here, we are serious -- it's the right of our people," Nechirvan Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, told Reuters.

The transitional laws would remain in effect but are not mentioned in the resolution because of objections from the leading Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

In Baghdad, Allawi announced that the Kurds and other Iraqi factions had agreed to disband their militias, in a deal that effectively outlaws fighters loyal to a rebel Shi'ite cleric.

"As a result of this achievement, the vast majority of such forces in Iraq -- about 100,000 armed individuals -- will enter either civilian life or one of the state security services," the interim prime minister said in a statement.

The deal does not encompass the Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who launched an anti-US uprising two months ago.

An arms depot belonging to Sadr's militia exploded near a mosque in the Shi'ite town of Kufa, killing three people and wounding 12, hospital officials said. The US military said its forces were not operating in the area at the time.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq