France, Germany push for new U.N. resolution on Iraq

By Seattle Times news services

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The United States has been urging the United Nations to take a greater role in Iraq, but a new resolution might set up another confrontation between the United States and two leading opponents of the war.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan today will give the Security Council recommendations on how a new Iraqi government should be selected.

He is expected to agree with the United States that direct elections — which have been sought by Iraq's leading Shiite cleric in defiance of a U.S.-backed transition plan based on a system of caucuses — were not possible before the scheduled June 30 power transfer but would be desirable by the end of the year.

The United States and Iraqi Governing Council last November agreed to use a system of representative caucuses rather than direct elections to form a government in June.

U.S. officials hope the U.N. involvement in the transitional government will earn the mission greater acceptance by Iraqis and its neighbors and will lead other countries to contribute more money, troops and political support.

But some countries have been skeptical about the way the U.S.-led coalition has organized the occupation and given out contracts to rebuild the country.

The United States has so far barred French, Russian and German companies from bidding for $18.6 billion in U.S.-funded prime reconstruction contracts after those nations opposed the war.

Annan is expected to delay his recommendations on the sensitive question of how to choose a provisional government, officials said.

His decision today might pave the way for a new U.S.-U.N. collaboration on an alternative transition plan.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and a majority of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council have rejected the Nov. 15 plan to hold regional caucuses. Among the ideas under consideration, a U.N. official said, is organizing a national conference of tribal, political and religious leaders that reflects Iraq's disparate population to select a provisional government — similar to the Afghanistan's loya jirga.
 
Another possibility is expanding the current 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, say U.S. and U.N. officials. Such a modified council would hold sovereignty until Iraq's first democratic elections.

Over the past two months, a growing number of senior U.S. foreign-policy officials and military officers have become convinced that the transition will succeed — and have the widest support among Iraqis — only if the United Nations crafts a plan and then oversees selection of a provisional Iraqi government, with help from the United States and other coalition partners.

But key U.S. officials in the offices of Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld oppose handing over significant authority or control of the pivotal process, preferring to keep the United Nations in an advisory or support role, according to U.S. and congressional officials.

"They say, 'Can the U.N. really do it better than we can?' These are not guys who think the U.N. is capable of assuming a massive undertaking like Iraq. They argue that we've invested billions of dollars, hundreds of lives, and the reputations of a nation and a president. We can't fail. But if we turn it over to others, we lose control of Iraq's destiny," a well-placed U.S. official said.

Compiled from The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Reuters reports.

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