Washington: Ahead of an emergency summit with Britain and Spain on the Iraq issue,
United States has warned that it is in the "endgame of UN diplomacy" and said an
interim authority would be set up in post-Saddam Iraq on the lines of the one in
Afghanistan.
"We are in the endgame for UN diplomacy. They will look to see if there is anything
more that can be done to bring the UN to take the decision that it needs to take,"
US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said on the March 16 Azores meeting of
US President Bush with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and his Spanish
counterpart Jose Maria Aznar.
"We are reaching the final stages. This cannot go on for very much longer," Rice
told 'al Jazeera' television channel on March 14.
"A moment of truth is coming soon and that is what the leaders are going to meet to
discuss in the Azores."
Pointing that the Security Council "could not act in Kosovo and Rwanda", Rice said
President George W Bush and the co-sponsors of the resolution, asking Baghdad to
disarm by March 17 or face war, are "making a last push to see if we can convince
people to take on their responsibilities".
Denying that a US-led attack would pave the way for "foreign occupation" of the
country, Rice said US was mulling setting up of an interim authority comprising of
Iraqis from inside and outside the country in post-Saddam Iraq.
"We are determined that almost from the very beginning, Iraqis will have their own
future at hand. Just as we did in Afghanistan, the United States and the coalition
will stay as long as we are needed. But we have no desire to stay very long at all,"
Rice said.
Rice maintained the forces will stay in Iraq "as long as we are needed but not one
minute longer" and said US was determined "to very early on put in place with Iraqis
from outside and inside the country an Iraqi authority that can administer and run
the country.
"We know that there are local and other leaders who have a lot of legitimate
authority in Iraq. And we would hope that this interim Iraqi authority would bring
together Iraqis to start to take control of their own future.
"There will be a period of time in which there are tasks to be done, humanitarian
assistance, guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Iraq, being concerned about
sectarian violence, being concerned that the resources of the Iraqi people are
returned to the use of the Iraqi people. Those are the things, the coalition will
have to do," Rice said.
PTI
