9.5.03
UPDATE on US-UK resolution to "occupy" Iraq
From the Times:Britain and the United States won key support at the United Nations yesterday for their plan to take control of Iraq's oil wealth and to set up an interim authority in the country.The Guardian has a good article on this as well. A Danish diplomat stated thatA draft resolution endorsing the role of Britain and the United States as "occupying powers" for at least a year attracted early support from crucial swing voters on the 15-nation Security Council, leaving Russia and France isolated.
...[The UN French ambassador stated,]"One of the main questions that I have asked is some clarification on the political process that is mentioned in the text. We also think the role of the UN co-ordinator should be enhanced. There is also a question of how the Council will monitor the process."
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's UN envoy, raised the need under existing resolutions for UN weapons inspectors to certify Iraq as being free of weapons of mass destruction before sanctions are lifted altogether, according to diplomats present. The draft makes no mention of weapon inspectors.
the US was "on its way to becoming a member of Opec", the Middle Eastern oil cartel.The Independent also has a good article.
"They will appropriate the oil," he told the Danish public service DR radio station. "It is very difficult to see how this would make sense in any other way.
"The unwillingness to give the UN a genuine, legal well-defined role, also in the broader context of rebuilding Iraq after Saddam ... speaks a language that is quite clear."
Full text of the draft (via the BBC; BBC article on the draft resolution) here.
