Washington, Sept 04: The security part of the draft UN Security Council resolution on Iraq the US is proposing has already been shown to India and Pakistan, diplomats were today quoted as saying. The objective right now for the us administration is to get both Islamabad and new delhi to agree to send troops to Iraq, the sources told a leading American daily.
India, Pakistan and Turkey are expected to be the largest source of potential troops, they said. The relative roles of the coalition provisional authority led by L. Paul Bremer, the top US civilian administrator, and the UN itself are left vague in the resolution, a council diplomat told the paper.
A question remains about what authority the occupation officials and the UN would have if they did not approve of the Iraqi draft constitution or timetable.
The US draft UN resolution calls for an enhancement of the role of the US-appointed council, which has 25 members. It asks the security council to "endorse the governing council as the principal body of the Iraqi interim administration". That could prove to be a problem because the governing council has not been widely recognised. The Arab League and such institutions as the World Bank and IMF have refused to recognize it.
"The main question," said the diplomat, "is whether the governing council will be accepted, respected and endorsed by the security council and the Arab world. Some people call Ahmed Chalabi, chairman of the governing council who has close ties to the Pentagon a "marionette from Washington." Bureau Report