NEW
YORK, October 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S.
secured Thursday, October 16, a unanimous support from all 15 members
of the U.N. Security Council, including Syria, for its new Iraq
resolution, but with no pledges for military or financial contribution
to its occupation authority in the war-ravaged country.
France,
Germany and Russia, the leading opponents of the U.S.-British invasion
of Iraq, finally voted in favor of the American draft, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"We
would have preferred that the text set out more stringent timeframes
on the transfer of responsibilities and the transition of power,"
said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin at an EU summit in
Brussels.
But
de Villepin said France would not give any extra financial help to
Iraq other than its contribution to a 200-million-euro European
Commission aid package agreed earlier this month.
"We
are taking part in the Commission contribution, we support it, but we
will not go beyond that," he said.
For
his part, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the yes vote of the
three countries came in the interests of the cohesiveness of the world
body.
"A
lot of what Germany, France and Russia proposed was put in the text.
We have an interest that in a difficult international situation the
U.N. stays together as far as possible," he said after a
45-minute three-way telephone conversation with French President
Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin of Russia.
"This
was the reason that, regardless of the reservations we still have ...
that led us together to support the resolution," Schroeder said.
"In
our view this progress does not yet constitute the reaction
appropriate to the current situation in Iraq, and that due to this we
are not able to commit ourselves militarily or to make other material
commitments beyond what has already been announced," he stressed.
It
was unclear if the last part of his comments was a reference to an
international donors' conference due next week in Madrid, at which
Washington would seek contributions to help reconstruction efforts in
Iraq.
The
U.S. is hoping that the conference will raise 20 billion dollars, but
Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio has said it would be a good
result if it could raise as much as two billion dollars.
The
Madrid conference is co-organized by the EU, the United States, the
United Nations, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the International
Monetary Fund.
The
anti-war trio had requested a more concrete timeline for returning
sovereignty to the Iraqis in the oil-rich country.
But
the United States has refused to bend from its plan to have Iraq write
a constitution first, then hold elections and only later gain full
independence with the formation of a post-Saddam Hussein government.
Question
Marks
 |
|
"We
are taking part in the Commission contribution, we support it, but
we will not go beyond that," said De Villepin (AFP)
|
Observers
said question marks now raise over the turnabout of the council
members who had earlier vehemently opposed the resolution, along with
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Annan
said he was "grateful" to the council for approving the
resolution, one day after he said the new U.S.-draft resolution made
few significant changes.
He
wanted a larger role for the world body and said he could not risk
returning staff to Iraq, where his envoy was among 22 people killed in
an attacked on U.N. Baghdad offices in August.
"As
circumstances permit, I plan to proceed with the other tasks indicated
in the resolution," Annan said after weeks of diplomatic haggling
over a number of stumbling blocks, including the scope of the U.N.
role in post-invasion Iraq.
As
for Syria, a key staunch opponent to the U.S. occupation of
neighboring Iraq, the yes vote could be considered a diplomatic
overture to Washington.
Although
the resolution did not respond to all of its expectation, Damascus
"hopes it would be an addition, all of commitments mentioned in
will be put into action," said Syria’s permanent representative
to the world body Faisal Meqdad.
This
came few hours after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted
(398-5) to sanction Syria, a lead to economic and trade sanctions and
diplomatic strains.
U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday welcomed the unanimous U.N.
vote on Washington's Iraq resolution after weeks of tense debate.
"I
am very, very pleased, the president is very, very pleased with this
outcome," he told reporters of the vote.
