Message Board

Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

United Nations: Suggesting changes to United States' draft resolution on Iraq in the Security Council, France, Germany and Russia have proposed reducing US role in Iraq and giving the UN the leading role in accelerating the process of restoring Iraqi sovereignty.

Two sets of amendments - one by France and Germany and the other by Russia - were submitted in the UNSC ahead of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's meeting on Iraq with Foreign Ministers of five permanent members of the Council in Geneva on September 13.

The proposed changes aimed to give the United Nations a strong mandate to supervise the political process and in arranging elections and force the United States to transfer most of the authority for administering the country to the Iraqi Governing Council quickly.

The French-German amendments call for "immediate" initiation of a process under the UN supervision for restoring "full Iraqi sovereignty" and putting control of all resources as also use of international assistance under the Iraqi authority.

The Russian amendments are milder as they call for the Iraqi authority gradually assuming more powers as it moves towards elections and developing a timetable for establishing a fully representative Iraqi government. However, they also call for the world body to "strengthen its role in Iraq".

The United States, diplomats say, is unlikely to agree to the amendments in their present form but it could mark the beginning of hard negotiations.

PTI