The US/The UN: The US sought yesterday to contain the damage to its draft United Nations resolution on Iraq after a rare public challenge by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, and more criticism by France and Russia.
The US envoy to the UN, Mr John Negroponte, held talks with Mr Annan and US officials did not rule out further revisions to the draft. The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said Washington was open to suggestions on revising the draft.
UN officials said Mr Annan had told the Security Council the UN would be unable to operate under the terms of the US proposal. The draft resolution calls for a multinational force under US command, but fails to provide a clear and separate UN mandate which allows the organisation to be seen as independent from the occupying powers.
Mr Annan has argued for an early transfer of sovereignty to a provisional Iraqi government which would have the authority to invite outside help and would take its time to prepare a constitution and hold elections. The US opposes transferring sovereignty to Iraqis before elections are held.
Mr Annan's blunt challenge risks provoking abstentions the US has worked hard to avoid. Following intensive diplomacy, the US and its allies had seemed confident this week the draft could win a comfortable majority, with Russia and Germany supporting it and France left isolated. A resolution requires at least nine votes on the 15-member Security Council to pass.
"His [Mr Annan's\] comments were certainly not helpful," one US official said. "Others are not buying in. We thought we had a workable draft."
France yesterday said it was disappointed by the US draft. Mr Herve Ladsous, foreign ministry spokesman, said it reflected French concerns "in only a very limited way", but Paris would continue to study the proposal.
Mr Annan's approach until now has been to remain on the sidelines in an Iraq debate that has torn apart the Security Council. UN officials, however, said his intervention became inevitable following the devastating August attack on the body's headquarters in Baghdad.
"We are being identified with the occupying authority and what we're seeing in Iraq is resistance to occupation," a UN official said.
Mr Powell said: "What the secretary-general wants is to find a way not to appear to be part of the occupation, but to be a humanitarian organisation assisting Iraqis in the political process.
"We are anxious to receive specific suggestions that they have in the hopes of getting as positive a vote for the resolution as we can," Mr Powell told reporters.
Washington analysts questioned what the US would gain by pushing through a resolution that was, in any case, unlikely to result in significant pledges of troops and funds from the international community.