UN council extends US-led force in Iraq by 1 yr

United Nations, Nov 29: The UN Security Council unanimously renewed the mandate of the US-led multinational force in Iraq through the end of 2007, granting a request from the Baghdad government.

US Ambassador John Bolton welcomed the vote a day ahead of planned talks in Jordan between US President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on how to bring violence under control and whether Iran and Syria could help.

The vote showed all countries in the region that the Security Council strongly backed ''stability in Iraq and continued progress toward democracy,'' Bolton said yesterday. ''We all share the same objective and I think that is something the neighboring countries need to take into account.'' But Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he regretted the resolution made no mention of the need to heal the deep divisions in Iraqi society, as Moscow had suggested.

France believed that offering a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops would show ''that the goal of the international community was to restore Iraq's sovereignty,'' said French Deputy Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

The vote on the US-drafted resolution came two weeks after al-Maliki wrote the council to assure it that Baghdad's goal was eventually to assume responsibility for recruiting, training and arming its security forces, taking over these forces' command and control, and assuming responsibility for apprehending and detaining criminals.

Earlier Security Council resolutions authorised the multinational force to arrest and detain prisoners in US facilities including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, even after the US-led occupation ended on June 30, 2004.

Without council renewal, the multinational force's current mandate would have expired at the end of 2006.

The resolution authorizes the Iraqi government to terminate the force's mandate at any time over the next year if it so chooses.

The measure also renews for a year the International Monitoring and Advisory Board, a UN watchdog set up by the council in 2003 to monitor the use of Iraq's oil wealth.

Iraq initially decided to abolish the board at the end of this year but reversed its decision at the request of governments donating money to Iraqi reconstruction, said Baghdad's deputy UN ambassador, Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi.

Iraq's oil sector has been plagued by sabotage and poor maintenance, and the IAMB has made clear it also suffers from mismanagement, smuggling and official corruption.

REUTERS

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