What New Security Council Resolution on Iraq Will Be Like?

The draft UN Security Council resolution on Iraq is the main item at the Moscow talks between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kim Holmes and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov.

U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell on Wednesday had a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the role of the international community in the postwar settlement in Iraq. After the meeting Powell said that in the coming few days a U.S. draft resolution on Iraq would be submitted to the UN Security Council. The resolution, he said, may be presented before the end of the week.

He said the resolution would definitely be directed into the future and not continue the old discord. It will be a resolution that will unite the international community in aid to the people of Iraq on their way to a better life and to formation of a new government, he told reporters. Powell believes the resolution may be supported by all, and it will give the Secretary General and the UN a vital role, about which President Bush had said.

This document is expected to contain a provision on introducing a post of a UN special co-ordinator for Iraq and whose functions will be to supervise all UN operations in that country.

But the key provision in the resolution should be the one on immediately lifting the embargo against Iraq, something on which Washington insists. President George Bush cancelled the U.S. Government sanctions against Iraq imposed in 1990.

The position of most of the Security Council members is that the sanctions against Iraq may be cancelled only after the UNMOVIC and IAEA international inspectors complete their work. Washington is against a return of the inspectors at this stage.