Accord still beyond reach for UN resolution on Iraq

By Bryan Bender, Globe Correspondent, 8/26/2003

WASHINGTON -- India is insisting on a United Nations resolution mandating international cooperation before sending 25,000 of its troops to Iraq.

Germany will send troops, too, but not if they're under US command.

France will send its soldiers only if UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq, because it does not trust leaving the hunt for outlawed weapons solely to the Americans.

And in the administration itself, Defense Department officials are refusing to cede any control over the reconstruction of Iraq to the UN.

Despite the apparently mutual desires of the United States and the UN to work together on a new resolution paving the way for more international troops in Iraq, the two parties are engaged in a furious and, by some predictions, futile effort to satisfy the conflicting demands of Washington and its allies.

Behind the diplomacy -- played out in a series of meetings yesterday at UN headquarters in New York and throughout the State Department, Pentagon, and White House in Washington -- is lingering distrust from last winter's battle over the Iraq war itself.

The UN, officials said, is reluctant to give its blessing to sending foreign troops to Iraq without greater say in the rebuilding of Iraq. Such concessions are necessary to satisfy the many countries that opposed the war and are skeptical of the Bush administration's intentions in Iraq.

"The tone of the Americans has changed, but not the substance," a senior UN diplomat involved in the negotiations said yesterday on condition of anonymity. "You can't expect to share in the military side without political" involvement.

On the US side, defense officials said, there is growing fear that surrendering control of the postwar reconstruction could impede the creation of a US-style democracy in Iraq and complicate the military operations.

Last week, after the bombing of the UN office in Baghdad, Washington called for more nations to join the peacekeeping effort. The administration was responding both to growing concern in the United States over the cost of the Iraq occupation and to rising anti-US sentiment in Iraq. Administration officials and international diplomats said yesterday that those and other efforts to win international backing are making little, if any, progress. The US insistence on maintaining full military and political control in Iraq is blocking agreement with France, Germany, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Turkey. The last two, as Islamic nations, are particularly important to the peacekeeping effort, officials said.

Some of the roadblocks, the officials added, include the apparent unwillingness of top Bush administration officials to grant concessions to the same international organization they clashed with in the run-up to the war. Moreover, US officials insist all security forces must remain under American control.

"I think it is clear from the hesitancy on the US part that they would have to give up some power in running Iraq," said Stephen Schlesinger, director of the World Policy Institute at the New School University in New York. "They simply feel we sent the troops in there, we defeated [Saddam Hussein], and we are not going to let anyone participate in the rebuilding process unless they do it on our terms. It's very shortsighted."

The administration maintains that UN Resolution 1483, which recognized the American-led occupation after the fall of Hussein's regime, provides the necessary authority for other nations to participate. US officials say that 29 countries have contributed 21,700 troops to supplement the estimated 140,000 US troops now in the country. Senior members of Congress, however, have urged the Bush administration to bring in more, on the order of 40,000 to 60,000 additional forces.

State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said yesterday that the United States is willing to explore "some language" to reassure potential allies.

Such language, however, would have to accommodate France and Russia, which possess veto power in the UN Security Council. French officials have said they want UN weapons inspectors to hunt for Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction. Russia, along with Germany, has said it would not support dispatching troops under American command.

UN diplomats see little progress in a meeting of the minds.

"What I sense is that the gap is not being filled," the senior UN diplomat said yesterday. "There needs to be a lot more discussions and consultation in Washington. Some big fish would have to be swallowed in Washington before they could say what the French and the Germans want them to say. I don't think we're there yet."

The official said more consultations were scheduled for today.