Franks enters Baghdad

WASHINGTON, April 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, entered Baghdad for the first time Wednesday, April 16, after four weeks of war and held a teleconference with U.S. President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Franks' visit to the Iraqi capital to meet his commanders one week after it fell into U.S. hands and Saddam's regime crumbled following three weeks of heavy bombing and ground assault.

He rode in a dozen-vehicle motorcade, including Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles, to Saddam's Abu Ghurayb North Palace, which had been converted into a U.S. military command center.

The general, thought to be the ruler of the post-war Iraq, toured the ornate rooms of the palace, including a bathroom where the sink fixtures, toilet-paper dispenser and toilet-bowl brush were all made of gold, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It's the oil-for-palace program," said Franks, referring sarcastically to the "oil-for-food" program.

Smoking a cigar in the palace, Franks held a teleconference with Bush and Rumsfeld before he and other commanders held a closed-door teleconference with Bush.

The war was all but officially over a week after Baghdad fell to the U.S.-led troops, but the situation remained tense in northern cities where bloody incidents have marred U.S. efforts to put a lid on post-Saddam chaos.

Bush Wants Sanctions Lift

"Now that Iraq is liberated the United Nations should lift economic sanctions on that country," Bush

Meanwhile, seeking more ‘freedom’ in handling the Iraqi economy, especially its oil sector, Bush said Wednesday that the United Nations sanctions in force against Iraq for more than 12 years should be lifted now that President Saddam Hussein has been removed from power.

"Now that Iraq is ‘liberated’ the United Nations should lift economic sanctions on that country," Bush told a crowd of workers at a Boeing aircraft factory in St Louis, Missouri.

It was a single sentence in a 27-minute speech, and Bush offered no elaboration about how he wanted that to occur. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Air Force One that Bush wants Iraq to "restore a normal trading relationship with the global economy."

However diplomats at the U.N. predict renewed wrangling in the Security Council if the U.S. pushes for an early easing of the punitive measures imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

They say questions have first to be answered about whether Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction and who will control the country's resources, the BBC News Online reported.

The U.N. embargo was imposed in August 1990, shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait, and dismantling it would pave the way for Iraq to sell oil outside the framework of the U.N.-brokered oil-for-food program.

Bush, after signing a $79 billion war spending bill at the White House this morning, flew to the Boeing factory for a trip devoted largely to celebrating “military successes” in Iraq.

"Our work is not done,… the difficulties have not passed. But the regime of Saddam Hussein has passed into history," he said.

A White House spokesman said the U.S. would soon propose a resolution to allow normal trade to resume, ending the UN humanitarian program.

More Leverage

But Washington's request for ending the sanctions quickly sound like the opening shot of a new fight in the Security Council, which has control over Iraq's oil.

Several diplomats said they would need to know more about U.S. postwar plans before suspending or lifting sanctions, with the prospect of possible serious opposition from anti-war member states.

And with Bush determined that the United Nations will play only a supporting role in redeveloping Iraq, diplomats said France, Russia and China view the sanctions as a way to keep more leverage over the process, Washington Post said.

Under UN resolutions, the sanctions should be only lifted after Iraq demonstrates that it has no weapons of mass destruction- the accusation Washington could not sustain so far after claiming full control over Iraqi territories.

The U.N. weapons inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq ahead of the U.S.-led military aggression, and they said they found no banned weapons in the country after several months of inspections.

"Still Discussed"

So some Council members are expect to insist that there can be no progress on a new resolution seeking to lift U.N sanctions until those inspectors are allowed back.

The Security Council will broach the issue of lifting sanctions next week, while U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said a resolution has not yet been drafted.

"The specifics are still being discussed among agencies in Washington," he said.

But as the U.S. and Britain are anxious to secure the UN blessing for a future Baghdad administration of their own design, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was rebuffed on Tuesday when he attempted to persuade the United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan to appoint a special representative to Baghdad.

The Prime Minister wants the UN to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the interim administration being set up in Iraq by America and Britain and says it should play a "vital" role in the country's future, British daily Independent reported.

Annan made clear that a credible special representative in Baghdad would need Security Council approval – requiring backing by France, Germany and Russia, a step that will open the door for a further round of tortuous negotiations in the Security Council.