16 October 2003
U.N. Security Council Unanimously Supports Iraq Resolution
Negroponte calls the vote "a good day for Iraq"
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The Security Council October 16 unanimously adopted a resolution demonstrating international support for a broad political, economic, and security framework for Iraq.
"This is a good day for Iraq. It's a good day for the council and a good day for the future of Iraq," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said after the vote.
"We think it is important in terms of council unity and it's particularly important with respect to the future of Iraq itself," Negroponte said. "The important point now is that the political future of Iraq is very much in their own hands."
Negroponte pointed out that an Iraq donors conference will be held in Madrid on October 24 and the United States hopes that "this 15 to 0 vote will give impetus to that."
Traveling in California, President Bush welcomed the unanimous council action. "The world has an opportunity -- and a responsibility -- to help the Iraqi people build a nation that is stable, secure, and free," a presidential statement said. "This resolution will help marshal even more international support for the development of a new, democratic Iraq. I look forward to continuing to work with the United Nations to aid the transition in Iraq to self-government and help the Iraqi people rebuild their nation."
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "the resolution accomplishes the objectives that the president had when we began to work on this resolution ... to bring the international community together to agree on a plan to move forward to restore full sovereignty of Iraq back to the Iraqi people in a careful, deliberate way, that would include creating a government that was based on a constitution and electing leaders on the basis of that constitution."
The vote took place after six weeks of intense negotiations in the capitals of Security Council members as well as at U.N. headquarters. The negotiations focused on the timeframe for transferring sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to Iraq and the role of the United Nations in the process.
The resolution was co-sponsored by the United States, Cameroon, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The resolution gives the Iraqi Governing Council two months -- until December 15, 2003 -- to present a timetable to the Security Council for drafting a new constitution and holding democratic elections under that constitution.
The council authorized a multinational force "under unified command to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq." The force is to report to the council at least every six months. In a statement to the council following the vote, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte noted that the multinational force would be under "unified United States command."
The resolution also urges nations to contribute military forces to the multinational force and calls on them as well as international financial institutions to provide the necessary resources, including a full range of loans and other financial assistance, for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq's economic infrastructure.
The resolution appealed to the CPA "to return governing responsibilities and authorities to the people of Iraq as soon as practicable" and asked the authority, the Iraqi Governing Council and the U.N. secretary general to report to the council on the progress.
The council "unequivocally condemns" the terrorist bombings in Iraq and calls on nations to prevent the transit of terrorists and weapons and financing for terrorist activities into the country, the resolution also said.
France, Germany, Russia, and Syria had indicated that they would abstain on the resolution until the resolution's co-sponsors introduced a third set of amendments to the resolution just before the vote was scheduled for October 15.
France, Germany and Russia issued a statement after the October 15 vote saying the resolution had been improved during the negotiation process, "thus allowing us, in a spirit of unity, to support it as a step in the right direction of the restoration of Iraq with the participation of the United Nations."
The three nations said that they would have liked to see the resolution further define the role of the United Nations in the political process and set a shorter timetable for the transfer of responsibilities to the Iraqi people.
Secretary General Kofi Annan commended the council for reaching agreement on "what obviously is a particularly important resolution to address the complex situation in Iraq."
Annan said that he will do his utmost to implement the mandate given the U.N. "bearing in mind the constraints on the ground" and his "obligation to care for the safety and security of the United Nations staff."
Since a car bomb attack on U.N. headquarters in Baghdad August 19 killed U.N. special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others including several U.N. staff, the United Nations has maintained a staff of 36 in Iraq, down from a high of about 600. Throughout the negotiations on the resolution, Annan commented on the difficulty the U.N. would have carrying out its mission in the country.
In his remarks during the formal Security Council meeting, Negroponte said that the United States first proposed the resolution "in the wake of the devastating trio of terrorist bombings at the Jordanian Embassy, the United Nations headquarters and the Imam Ali Mosque. These actions represented an assault on the new Iraq, as was the tragic assassination of governing council member Dr. Akila al-Hashemi."
British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said the United Kingdom had three main objectives in the resolution: to confirm and accelerate the transfer of power to the people of Iraq; to send a clear signal that the international community is committed to the rapid political and economic reconstruction of a free Iraq; and to ensure a strengthened vital role for the United Nations in partnership with the CPA and the Iraqi people.
"The success of this resolution will be secured if all of us in the council and in the international community now mobilized to give effect to the signal we have sent," the U.K. ambassador 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)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031016153701atia0.1872827&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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