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UN Considers Proposal For Peacekeeping in Iraq

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By Jess Bravin

Wall Street Journal
April 10, 2003

United Nations officials, scrambling to find a role in postwar Iraq that would be acceptable both to Washington and the major powers that opposed the U.S.-led invasion, are considering a proposal to offer a U.N.-authorized force to assist in the occupation. U.N. officials refer to the plan -- still in its draft stages -- as "coalition-plus." It envisions augmenting U.S.-led coalition forces with contingents from other countries, including Arab states, according to a person familiar with the matter. The aim would be to "transform the coalition into a peacekeeping or stabilization force," this person said, similar to the multilateral force the U.N. authorized for Afghanistan.


Washington has been cool to allowing the U.N. a major postwar role beyond supplying humanitarian relief, given that many U.N. members and officials opposed the Iraq invasion. But coalition-plus could be attractive to Washington, U.N. officials hope, because it might allow the U.S. to reduce the number of its own troops in Iraq while demonstrating international support for the successor government. A U.S. diplomat said it is too soon to say whether Washington would entertain the prospect of a U.N.-backed peacekeeping force. The U.S. interest at the Security Council is more immediate: fashioning a resolution that will allow the sale of Iraqi oil to fund humanitarian and reconstruction projects. The debate is already contentious, as French and Russian diplomats remain opposed to actions that would appear to legitimize the Iraq campaign.

The leaders of permanent council members France and Russia, along with Germany, which currently holds a rotating Security Council seat, are scheduled to meet this weekend in St. Petersburg, Russia, and will discuss their position now that Baghdad has fallen to U.S. troops. The current resolution authorizing the Iraqi oil-for-food program, which has supplied most Iraqis with their necessities, expires next month.

The U.N.'s proposals for postwar Iraq are being developed by Rafeeuddin Ahmed, a veteran U.N. official appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to prepare for Iraq's reconstruction. Mr. Ahmed, a Pakistani, has taken part in several of the U.N.'s recent nation-building projects, including those in Cambodia and East Timor. He has been informally advising Mr. Annan since February and, after being officially named to the post Monday, has been meeting individually with Security Council diplomats.

Mr. Annan, who is to meet next week with European Union leaders in Athens, Greece, hasn't yet endorsed "coalition-plus" or any specific postwar plan. In the three weeks since war was launched, he has struggled to find a broader mission that the Security Council, bitterly divided over President Bush's decision to initiate the invasion without council approval, could support. Consensus there is necessary for any U.N. role, as each of the five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. -- holds veto power.

Earlier this week, Mr. Bush said the U.N. should have a "vital role" in postwar Iraq and participate in selecting Iraqis who will form an interim government. But having ousted Saddam Hussein with its own forces, the U.S. says it must ensure that Iraq's political and economic rehabilitation meets U.S. war aims. U.S. officials also are skeptical of the U.N.'s capacity to manage affairs in a country as complex as Iraq.

France, which had threatened to veto a Security Council authorization of the war, and other countries that opposed overthrowing the Baghdad regime see the matter differently. They consider the U.S.-led invasion a transgression of international law and want U.N. oversight to ensure they have a say in reconstruction and to blunt perceptions that a new Iraqi government would be an American client state.

Both sides claim they have the Iraqi people's best interest at heart. They also note the enormous economic stakes: The larger the U.N. role, the greater the opportunity for foreign governments and companies to obtain a share of reconstruction contracts and oil leases.

Some U.S. officials acknowledge that a U.N. imprimatur would make regime change more palatable abroad, and would lower several legal and diplomatic obstacles, such as the current U.N.-imposed economic sanctions on Iraq.


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.