Bush in talks to bolster UN role
Security advisers discuss plan for Baghdad force
Julian Borger in Washington, Sarah Hall and Jamie
Wilson in Baghdad
Thursday August 21, 2003
The Guardian
President George Bush's top national security advisers
yesterday held an urgent debate over whether to seek a new UN
resolution backing an international stabilisation force, in the
wake of Tuesday's devastating truck bomb attack on the UN
headquarters in Iraq.
The Blair government is attempting to persuade a reluctant
White House to give the international community a greater say
in running Iraq in return for a UN endorsement of foreign troop
contributions.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who is due to fly to the UN
today, insisted that Britain and the US remained "open-minded"
about the UN moving beyond its current humanitarian role. "I
started talking to [US] secretary of state Colin Powell last night
about this," he added. "Obviously now, given this appalling
tragedy ... the UN's role, its practical role and its mandate, will
be top of my agenda in New York," he told BBC Radio 4's Today
programme.
The talks on how to prevent Iraq slipping into chaos started as
the UN ordered a "partial evacuation" of its Baghdad staff to
Jordan. The number of victims of the bombing seemed certain to
rise well above 20, as it emerged that up to 10 bodies could still
be in the debris.
US troops yesterday used heavy lifting gear to remove large
pieces of the building as the hunt for survivors was replaced by a
more methodical and sombre search for the bodies. At one point
troops stopped for what looked like a moment's silence before
removing a body.
The soldiers mingled with FBI agents hunting clues to whoever
set off the bomb that left a 6ft crater.
Human remains found in the area of the crater suggested a
suicide bombing, said FBI special agent Thomas Fuentes, but
laboratory tests were needed to confirm this.
He said the attackers packed a Soviet-made lorry with more
than 1,000lb of old Iraqi army munitions, including a single 500lb
bomb.
As the investigation continued, the administration's national
security "principals", including Mr Powell, Condoleezza Rice,
the national security adviser, and Dick Cheney, the
vice-president, were due to discuss the UN's role last night in a
video-conference with Mr Bush at his Texas ranch. The defence
secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was in Central America.
An official familiar with the conference agenda said it was
unlikely the hawks were ready to compromise over the
administration negotiating US command and control of the
occupation force and the unquestioned authority of Paul
Bremer's coalition provisional authority.
Instead, the administration hawks hope that Tuesday's attack
will shock the international community into making a greater
military and economic contribution to Iraqi stability. "They are
grasping this attack as an opportunity to get more people
aboard," the official said.
The official added that the new draft resolution under discussion
would "call for more troops, more money, more recognition,
especially from the Arab states. It will frame the argument that it
is not just the US, but the whole international community who
loses if Iraq goes wrong."
It could also include a security council instruction to Syria and
Iran to make more effort to secure their borders against the
infiltration of Islamic militants.
Until now, almost all potential troop contributors have told
Washington they will not send soldiers without a security
council mandate.
Mr Bremer yesterday denied that the situation in Iraq was
unravelling, arguing that security was improving across much of
the country. However, the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan,
offered a radically different assessment of the situation. "We had
hoped that by now, the coalition forces would have secured the
environment for us to be able to carry on ... economic
reconstruction and institution-building," he said. "That has not
happened."
While saying nothing could justify the current violence in Iraq, he
noted: "Some mistakes may have been made, some wrong
assumptions." |
