The United Nations Security Council met here Friday to discuss the situation in Iraq, with many council members cautiously welcoming the progress already made, expressing concern over the security situation there and calling for greater UN role.
Briefing the council on the activities of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), US Ambassador John Negroponte said the Iraqi Governing Council's decision to create a political process for choosing a transitional national assembly was a dramatic step in the country's move to full sovereignty in 2004, a step that should be welcomed by the international community.
Under the UN resolution 1483, the United States and Britain were asked to inform the council at regular intervals of their activities. A previous briefing was held on Aug 21, 2003.
Negroponte said that by June 30, the new administration would take full responsibility and the CPA would be dissolved, along with the CPA-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
"The United Nations has a vital role to play in Iraq and we would welcome the return of United Nations international personnel to Iraq to carry out the mandates of the relevant resolutions," he added.
The UN resolution 1511 calls on the world body to strengthen its vital role in Iraq by taking such measures as providing humanitarian relief, promoting economic reconstruction and advancing efforts to establish representative local and national governments. The UN's local Iraqi staff members are working on these programs in parts of the country.
However, the UN's Baghdad offices were fatally bombed in August, leading to a reduction of the UN presence.
Negroponte said his government stood ready to discuss appropriate security support with UN officials, adding that despite the killings and bombings, much of Iraq was calm, and Iraqis were expanding the conditions for security and stability by recruiting 130,000 additional personnel to the security effort.
In his briefing, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said, "The more we can do to make rebuilding Iraq a collective enterprise, the more quickly the Iraqi people will achieve the bright future they deserve."
He urged the governments that had frozen and held Iraqi funds since 1990 to transfer the money to the Development Fund for Iraq, as required by Resolution 1483, which lifted sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion and subsequent occupation of Kuwait.
During the ensuing debate, Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said he could not understand why CPA reports on Iraqi disarmament were not submitted to the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He also questioned the CPA's failure to submit to the Security Council the Nov. 15 agreement with the Iraqi Governing Council and failure even to mention the United Nations in its text.
French UN Ambassador Jean-Marc De Sabliere welcomed the Nov. 15agreement and stressed that all Iraqis opposing violence must be included in the process. It was essential that the United Nations be allowed, with full independence, to lend legitimacy and support to the process.
German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said a strong UN role was imperative to supplying the necessary and legitimacy until democratic elections took place. The political process had to be broadened to include all cooperative elements of Iraqi society, he added.
Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya also stressed the importance of a leading role by the UN, and expressed the hope that the UN would be able to play a substantial role in the political process and reconstruction of Iraq. He was deeply concerned about the failure to improve the security situation in Iraq and called on the CPA to improve that situation promptly.
