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Thursday vote likely on U.N. resolution to end Iraq sanctions
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- After four hours of discussions Tuesday on a draft resolution that calls for lifting the sanctions on Iraq, U.N. Security Council diplomats said they would likely vote on it Thursday morning. When the United States introduced the 12-page text Monday, council members had said they could vote on it as early as Wednesday. Sergei Lavrov, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, said his delegation still had questions about the resolution, and wanted the draft to be clearer on issues like the Security Council's role in overseeing Iraq's reconstruction and the criteria for phasing out measures like the oil-for-food program. Lavrov said the United States and its co-sponsors, Britain and Spain, promised to address those issues Wednesday. As it stands, the resolution would dismantle the oil-for-food program in six months and would lift all sanctions except those on weapons. It does not address the question of whether U.N. arms inspectors will return to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, leaving that issue for another day. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) inspectors amassed years of experience seeking Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction prior to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, and the issue of their return is another outstanding question for the Russians, Lavrov said. "We also believe that we have to have an understanding how we close the disarmament files of Iraq in accordance with the resolutions which UNMOVIC and IAEA present," he said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the resolution ends the effective control of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq once that authority can be turned over to an "internationally recognized government" of Iraq. That transfer would not be pegged to any timetable, he said.
Iraq's oil proceeds would go into a development fund with international monitoring, but the United States and Britain would have the authority to use the money for reconstruction. The oil money would also be temporarily immune from legal claims. The United States is concerned that Iraq's creditors, who say they are owed some $400 billion, might want some part of the revenue. The latest revision of the draft also might appease France and Russia, and some of the multimillion-dollar contracts they have under the oil-for-food program. Negroponte and British ambassador Jeremy Greenstock both said they believe the resolution has strong support. "My hopes are quite high that there will be a large number of votes for this resolution," Greenstock said. The resolution calls for a U.N. special representative to coordinate humanitarian work and help establish a new government. Current wording has the United Nations playing a largely humanitarian role, one secondary to those of the United States and Britain in assisting the setup of political institutions.
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