UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the United States on Friday it would not get Security Council support for more troops in Iraq unless it ceded some decision-making power in the country.
"It would also imply not just burden-sharing but also sharing decision and responsibility with the others," Annan said. "If that doesn't happen, I think it is going to be very difficult to get a second resolution that will satisfy everyone."
Despite worldwide anguish over the bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad, the United States faces considerable resistance in its quest for a UN Security Council resolution that would recruit more troops, police and money to help rebuild Iraq if it does not relinquish some control.
The same countries -- France, Russia, Germany -- who opposed the invasion of Iraq are asking for broader international control across the board in the political and economic as well as security spheres.
None of the three are expected to send troops but several potential large contributors, such as India, Pakistan and Turkey, have refused to send soldiers without a stronger UN mandate.
Annan, however, said any force should be authorized but not organized by the United Nations. "We don't have the capacity" to send blue-helmeted peacekeepers, he said after a session with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
"It is not excluded that the Security Council may decide to transform the operation into a UN-mandated multinational force, operation on the ground with other governments coming in," Annan said.
UN officials said Annan was referring to suggestions from some nations that the 15-member Security Council authorize a multinational force that would include troops there now and allow additional soldiers to join.
This would mean keeping US military leadership but broadening the command to include officers from more countries than those in the coalition.
"While the United States would retrain overall command it would do so under a UN mandate," said Shahsi Tharoor, the UN underseceretary-general for public information.
However, Powell, who visited Annan on Thursday, gave no indication the Bush administration would relinquish control of the country's development. Straw, who is spending the weekend with Powell at a vacation villa in Long Island, said on Friday he wanted "to strengthen the mandate of the United Nations" but gave no details.
"Ceding authority is not an issue we have had to discuss," Powell said, adding: "Perhaps additional language and a new resolution might encourage others."
At least 24 people perished on Tuesday when a truck bomb demolished UN headquarters in Baghdad, injuring nearly 100 more. Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, 55, head of the mission, died in his office.
Annan on Friday appointed Ramiro Lopes da Silva, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, to replace Vieira de Mello on an interim basis, diplomats said.
US officials stress that the US-led force in Iraq was already multinational, with 30 nations providing about 22,000 troops. But 11,000 troops are from Britain alone. There are about 150,000 American soldiers.
Richard Holbrooke, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, said a NATO country such as Norway should organize a multinational force of about 3,000 soldiers "with the sole mission of protecting the UN" but under a general American military umbrella, as in Afghanistan.
(China Daily August 23, 2003)
