LJWorld.com / U.S. to get more U.N. aid for Iraq

Archive for Thursday, October 16, 2003

By Colum Lynch - The Washington Post

October 16, 2003

United Nations — The Bush administration reached an agreement Wednesday with Russia, China and Pakistan on a United Nations Security Council resolution calling on U.N. members to supply more troops and money to support the occupation of Iraq, according to U.S. and U.N. diplomats.

That agreement assured that an overwhelming council majority would pass the U.S.-sponsored resolution, but the United States agreed to a Russian request to delay a vote until 10 a.m. today.

The pact on the resolution, which will place U.S. forces at the head of a U.N.-mandated multinational force, was struck after the United States offered a final series of concessions. They included a wider role for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Iraq's constitutional process and a guarantee that the mandate for the force will expire when a new Iraqi government is sworn in.

U.S. officials said the latest compromise has gained them commitments from 12 of the 15 Security Council members. France, Germany and Syria remain undecided.

Bush administration officials and European diplomats said Russia requested a delay to persuade allies Germany and France to support the latest draft. But U.S. officials signaled that they were within reach of a revised resolution that would provide greater political cover to countries considering sending forces to Iraq.

Nations weighing requests from the United States to send peacekeepers to Iraq, including Pakistan, Turkey and India, have told Washington that it would be easier to commit troops if they served under a U.N. mandate.

"There has been real movement towards greater consensus on the basis of our draft text," John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters before he presented the council with the United States' fifth version of the text.