U.S. INTRODUCES U.N. RESOLUTION ON LIFTING IRAQ SANCTIONS

Informe de  FELICITY BARRINGER with STEVEN R. WEISMAN en “The New York Times” del 9-5-03


 

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 — A draft resolution was introduced by the United States, Britain and Spain this morning calling for the United Nations Security Council to endorse American and British control of Iraq's political development and financial resources for at least 12 months and to lift economic sanctions on Iraq.

Under the resolution, new Iraqi oil revenues and at least $3 billion in the current United-Nations-controlled escrow fund would be transferred to a new Iraqi Assistance Fund to be "disbursed at the direction of" the United States and Britain — also referred to as "the authority" — in consultation with whatever Iraqi interim government materializes.

An advisory board that would include representatives from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations would have the right to appoint auditors to examine the accounts.

In Washington on Thursday, administration officials were optimistic about their chances of winning the Security Council's approval for the resolution, perhaps unanimously.

The "vital role" that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and President Bush promised for the United Nations is largely centered on its role as a member of the advisory board of the assistance fund and on the role of a new United Nations special coordinator in Iraq. The special coordinator, according to the resolution, would "work with the authority and the people of Iraq with respect to the restoration and establishment of national and local institutions for representative governance."

There is no mention in the resolution of the United Nations weapons inspection team led by Hans Blix. John D. Negroponte, the American ambassador here, said the United States saw no role for the inspectors "for the foreseeable future."

Knowledgeable diplomats say that France has signaled that, despite its misgivings over the Iraq occupation, it will not veto a resolution to lift the sanctions and may even vote yes.

French diplomats have said repeatedly in recent weeks that they want to be "pragmatic."

One French diplomat has told colleagues that his government would do anything except expect the United Nations "to be a rubber stamp."

Russian diplomats have been more inclined to focus on fulfilling the requirements of existing Security Council resolutions. But the draft resolution lacks any explicit mention of the requirement most frequently cited — that the United Nations weapons inspectors certify Iraq's disarmament.

In brief remarks to reporters on Thursday, Mr. Negroponte emphasized the need for speed in lifting the sanctions, saying, "There is no reason why a resolution lifting the sanctions on Iraq should take a prolonged period of time to discuss, and we think that this should be accomplished within the next couple of weeks."

Mr. Powell began lobbying for the proposal by speaking on Thursday with the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, and the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer. Assistant Secretary of State Kim R. Holmes met with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia in Moscow and is scheduled to land in Berlin today.

"This resolution is designed to get a 15-to-0 vote at the Security Council," a senior administration official said. "We think everybody who voted with us last fall, and then lost their way this spring, will accept the fact that, like it or not, the Iraqis should not have to live under sanctions."

German officials have informed the administration this week that they too will support lifting the sanctions, American and German officials said. Many diplomats predict Russia will go along because the roughly $1.5 billion in contracts for Russian-supplied goods sold to Iraq may be honored. It is unclear, however, what will be done about the billions of dollars — rough estimates run from $6 billion to $8 billion or more — in debts the former Iraqi government owed Russia.

The resolution would allow the United Nations-administered oil-for-food program, which currently has committed nearly $10 billion to pay for everything from essential foods to heavy industrial goods like bulldozers, pumps and pipeline equipment, to be phased out over four months. The program began in 1996 as a way of easing the sanctions' impact on Iraqi civilians. With the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government, the Security Council delegated the secretary general to adjust the current obligations and make food, medical and sanitation imports a top priority.

But the draft resolution authorizes the secretary general to pay only for contracts that provide essential aid like food and medicine, and does not expand it to the more expensive contracts for industrial goods. So it is conceivable that not only the $3.2 billion in unobligated funds currently in the account but a significant portion of the $10 billion already committed could end up in the assistance fund.

For Bush administration officials, the management of the oil sector is perhaps the most crucial issue. "This is where the graft, corruption, threats and the ability of the previous regime to develop its arsenal of weapons comes from," an administration official said. "It's an area where ordinary Iraqis and people living far away deserve assurance that it's going to be run transparently and honestly."

The assurance, in the American view, is provided by the establishment of the assistance fund to be overseen by an international advisory board that includes representatives of the United Nations Security Council, the I.M.F., the World Bank and "regional institutions."

The money in the fund is to be held in the Central Bank of Iraq and audited by independent public accountants chosen by the International Advisory Board. The fund will also be the recipient of foreign assistance — the "vessel" into which outside aid flows, using the term Secretary Powell spoke of last month.

Assuming that the interim Iraqi authority currently being assembled is in place by the end of this month, as the United States' current timetable indicates, the United Nations special coordinator would arrive after the first phase of nation-building is complete. However, he would be in place for the next phase of establishing a permanent Iraqi government.

The resolution's language invests the special coordinator with no explicit authority in the creation of a new Iraqi government and civil institutions, but American officials say the special coordinator's abilities to work with the various forces in Iraq will have a greater impact on his authority than the language of the resolution.

The official would also coordinate reconstruction efforts by United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations and promote economic reconstruction "through coordination with national and regional organizations," local authorities, donors and international financial institutions, the resolution said.

All proceeds from future oil sales will flow into the assistance fund, which will be held in the Iraqi central bank. The draft also calls on all nations to seize and transfer any assets held by the ousted regime or its officials to the assistance fund.

Both petroleum products and the revenues from their sale, under the resolution, would be immune from any financial claims made on the Iraqi government or its agents.

The resolution also calls on all nations to "take appropriate steps" to facilitate the return of Iraqi cultural property and antiquities looted in the days immediately after Saddam Hussein's government fell, and to prohibit trade in these items.

While the United States and Britain were negotiating the final form of the draft in the past week, on the military front, a flurry of diplomatic activity was underway to assemble an international coalition of military forces consisting of as many as 17 countries to carry out peacekeeping and security functions in Iraq.