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06 October 2003

Security Council Has Inconclusive Talks on Iraq Resolution

Negroponte: draft is good way to chart political course for Iraq

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Members of the Security Council are taking "a brief pause" to evaluate positions on the U.S. sponsored draft resolution on Iraq, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said October 6.

After a three-hour closed door meting on the revised draft resolution given to council members on October 2, Negroponte rejected journalists' suggestions that the future of the resolution was now in doubt.

"We have reached the stage where we have tabled our draft. We got some preliminary comments the other day and everybody referred the document to capitals. Today ... I answered questions that had been raised," the U.S. ambassador said. "We agreed this was now the time to take a brief pause for everybody to digest what had been said and see how it affected our thinking."

Negroponte characterized the session as "very thorough, but inconclusive." No date was set for another meeting on the draft, he said.

The draft resolution asks the Iraqi Governing Council to set a timetable for the drafting of a constitution and the holding of elections and authorizes a multinational force to provide security. It also gives the United Nations a larger role in the country such as helping the Iraqis organize elections and reform government institutions.

When he submitted the draft Negroponte said that the revised text "seeks to clarify that Iraqi sovereignty resides with the state of Iraq and that the issue at hand is the pace of Iraqi assumption of authority and responsibility for their own affairs."

Talking with journalists after the meeting October 6, Negroponte said the revised draft resolution already reflects the suggestions and ideas proposed by other governments and Secretary General Kofi Annan after the first draft of the resolution came under discussion in August.

"The multinational force idea came from discussions with the secretary general," the ambassador said. "The idea of a timetable, which is in the resolution, came from other members of the council when we were discussing this question in late August. The idea of trying to assign as many responsibilities as possible to the special representative was reflected in the secretary general's own report of July 16."

Negroponte added that "at the present time security conditions would make it difficult for the secretary general's special representative to exercise these responsibilities in the immediate future, but we would be hopeful that conditions would be established soon that would permit those activities to be undertaken."

The ambassador offered three reasons the resolution should be adopted by the council. The United States still believes that "this would be a good resolution in terms of charting a political way forward in Iraq; that it would be good in authorizing a multinational force that might encourage some other countries to contribute to the security of Iraq. We also think it would be useful in terms of the preparations for the upcoming donors conference in Madrid on the 24th of the month," he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)