UN vote on Iraq gives Bush win
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The UN Security Council yesterday unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a "sovereign interim government" in Iraq and a continued US military presence in the country, giving President Bush a major diplomatic victory as he welcomed world leaders to the G-8 summit off the Georgia coast.
The resolution, which passed 15 to 0 after going through several revisions, endorses the transfer of power from the occupation authority to the recently appointed interim Iraqi government, which will administer the country until elections are held by the end of January 2005.
Bush called the vote "a great victory for the Iraqi people."
At Sea Island, Ga., site of the G-8 summit, the president was being congratulated even before the resolution was passed.
"As the international community has to cooperate in order to reconstruct Iraq, I would like to pay respect to the strong leadership of President Bush in meeting this international coordination," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell offered a glowing assessment of the UN resolution. "I think it shows the international community coming together again to support the Iraqi people in their efforts to build a country that rests on the foundations of democracy and freedom and the rights of all," he said.
The resolution was embraced by key figures in Iraq as well.
"The significance of this resolution is to take away the concept of occupation, which I would say was the main reason for many of the difficulties that we have been going through since liberation," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in New York.
Agreement was reached on the resolution on Monday night after the United States gave ground on demands from France that the interim government have a greater say in future US-led military operations.
The US-led coalition, which will change from being an occupying power to a stabilization force when sovereignty is officially transferred on June 30, will work with the Iraqi government through a newly formed Iraqi Ministerial Committee for National Security to decide on future military operations. The US military will retain the right to use force in self-defense without the need for Iraqi approval.
An exchange of letters between Powell and Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, had spelled out those terms, which were eventually embraced by opponents of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, most notably France.
A key paragraph the United States changed at France's insistence says the ministerial committee "will serve as the forum for the multinational force and Iraqi government to reach agreement on the full range of fundamental security and policy issues, including policy on sensitive offensive operations." An earlier draft said simply that the Security Council would "welcome arrangements that are being put in place to establish a security partnership between the interim government and the multinational force and to ensure coordination between the two."
The more specific language satisfied France, China, Germany, and Algeria, which had all pushed for greater authority for the Iraqi government. In his meeting with Bush in France this past weekend, French President Jacques Chirac had stressed that any resolution had to give Iraqis real sovereignty.
Left unclear in the resolution is what happens if the US-led coalition forces disagree with Iraqi councils on security issues.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the negotiations on the resolution showed "a real dialogue for the first time in this affair."
Barnier added that, "The Americans clearly understood, after months and months of military operations, that there was no way out by arms, by military operations in Iraq. Washington understood that we have to get out of this tragedy by the high road."
Terms of the resolution call for a partial lifting of the 1991 arms embargo and for the dissolution of the interim government by the end of January 2005, when elections for a transitional national assembly are scheduled. A seven-person, UN electoral commission will run the balloting, if security conditions permit. The elected assembly will then choose a new president, prime minister, and Cabinet as well as draft a permanent constitution.
General elections to choose a government are to take place by Dec. 31, 2005. The US-led military force would then be withdrawn from Iraq, less than three years after the March 2003 invasion.
Iraqi leaders welcomed new language in the resolution spelling out that the US-led multinational force will consult with the new Iraqi government on "fundamental security and policy issues including policy on sensitive offensive operations."
They are insistent on having more input in military decisions to avoid the situation faced in April, when they nearly unanimously opposed US tactics in dealing with Fallujah's rebels and the militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, yet could do little to influence US decisions.
In Baghdad, Iraqi and US officials are working to hammer out a more detailed plan for how the consultations will take place.
Bruska Schaways, secretary general of the Ministry of Defense, said ministry officials are not asking for a veto over US actions but "to cooperate to make the right decision."
But some Iraqi officials are pushing for still greater independence in security matters.
Samir Shakir Mahmoud al-Sumaiday, who served as Iraq's interior minister from April until the new government was named last week, said Iraq's new government will lack credibility if it cannot hold foreign troops accountable for unjustified harm to Iraqi citizens.
"What we cannot have is for Coalition forces to be totally immune and shielded from any possible consequences of their actions in Iraq," he said. "Suppose a US tank just comes and drives across a parked Iraqi vehicle. The owner of that vehicle should have some recourse. The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens."
Washington reported from Savannah, Barnard from Baghdad. Globe correspondent Joe Lauria contributed to this report from the United Nations. 
