The US draft resolution on Iraq is considered unworkable by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, especially as it calls for more UN personnel in a country with deteriorating security, a senior UN official said last week.
The official, who briefed reporters on Annan's position on Iraq, said there are "honest differences of opinion" between the UN leader, who must carry out resolutions, and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US occupation forces in Iraq led by Paul Bremer.
The UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Annan is not leading the charge against the US draft or haggling to buy a carpet in Iraq.
Annan said last Thursday after the draft was submitted that it was "not in the direction I had recommended."
It was the first time that Annan spoke publicly against a draft resolution.
The official said the UN is not pretending that it can play an effective political role in Iraq under the present circumstances.
"Either the CPA or the UN can be in charge of the process," he said. "Attempting to blur the roles of the two is a recipe for confusion, and that could expose the UN to risk that is not justified by the substances of the draft."
He said recent attacks against the UN compound in Baghdad were evidence of the risk international workers face. On Aug. 19, a massive bomb attack killed 22 UN workers, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the special envoy for Iraq.
The official said Annan preferred to be given an explicit political role at a later stage, and that role should be supported by the Iraqi Governing Council, a united UN Security Council, the Iraqi people and institutions like the World Bank and IMF.
The official cited the major differences between Annan and the US draft resolution as follow:
Annan proposes that an Iraqi provisional government be set up in four to five months and that the US ends formally the occupation in order to send a strong signal to the Iraqis and the world to cooperate with that government.
The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council was hand-picked by the US with no executive responsibilities.
The provisional government in Baghdad can invite the CPA to remain in Iraq to give the US a legitimate presence. Other countries can contribute military personnel to a UN-authorized multinational force.
The official said drafting the constitution could take up to two years, taking into account the divisions among Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, all of whom want to share power in a future government.
He said a legislative body, comprising of the Governing Council, the current government Cabinet and the constitution committee, should draft the constitution.
Annan's position is in reverse of the US draft, the official said.
The US has called on the Governing Council and Iraqi leaders to draft the constitution and organize general elections for a representative government. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has suggested a six-month deadline to draft the constitution, which would be submitted to a referendum. No timetable has been specified for the US to end the occupation.
The UN official said it would take years to change a society like Iraq to go from a one-party system under former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to a multi-party system.
He said some Iraqi leaders have suggested using the 1958 Iraqi Constitution for the short term while negotiations on a future constitution are conducted.
"If you allow more time for a normal process to develop, then there is a hope that alliances could develop across confessional line," he said, pointing to Iraqis' thinking that they should not only be identified by their religions or political affiliations, but as Iraqis as well.
The official said the UN is looking for a mandate in Iraq that is "coherent, and not like a higgledy-piggledy consensus for the sake of agreement. The consensus is not enough, the consensus should be on the basis of a coherent mandate."
"What we are looking for is a mandate that is implementable and the secretary-general is signalling that he does not want to be saddled with a mandate that is unimplementable," the official said.
Annan, who has become more aggressive since Aug. 19 to protect UN personnel, wasn't the only one who opposed the US draft.
UN Security Council members like Germany, France and Syria have spoken against the draft as lacking the political and security elements that are essential for resolving the war situation in Iraq.
Syrian Ambassador Faysal Mekdal said the US draft failed to include ideas presented by council members two weeks ago when the initial draft was presented. Mekdal said reaction to the revised draft had been "negative."
Mekdal said the draft failed to include a major demand, which is a timetable for ending the "foreign occupation" of Iraq and return sovereignty to the Iraqi people.
US Ambassador John Negroponte, who presides the council in October, said Friday in reaction to Annan's objections that negotiations are still underway about the draft.
"We will have to see how capitals and delegations react to what has been circulated, and I guess you'll have to stay tuned," Negroponte said.
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