May 14, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424

UNITED NATIONS, May 13: The 15-member UN Security Council on Monday continued to fret over the US drafted resolution which seeks to lift UN imposed sanctions against Iraq and will relegate the world body to a largely advisory position.

Although the Security Council has little leverage left since US-led coalition armies invaded Iraq without it’s mandate, the major players in the council, Russia, France, China and Germany, do not want to give US and British authorities for a “carte blanche”-a total control over Iraq’s oil industry.

The resolution would come under earnest discussion on Wednesday following a special session of the Security Council organized by Pakistan, as the President of the Council, on “The role of the United Nations in the pacific resolution of disputes”

Under the US resolution, now on the table, all sanctions imposed 12 years ago against Iraq would be lifted except for an arms embargo. Iraq’s oil revenues, now under UN control, would be turned over to a new Iraqi Assistance Fund whose funds “shall be disbursed at the direction” of the United States and Britain for reconstruction and humanitarian purposes.

The US draft will give the UN stamp of approval to the US-British occupation of Iraq for at least a year and give the Americans and British control of the country’s oil wealth for rebuilding the country. The American oil and construction companies, Bechtel and Halliburton, have been given major contracts in rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure and oil industry.

Under the plan, the UN will appoint a coordinator to work with the US-British coalition, but the world body would have an advisory role, its influence limited mostly to humanitarian issues. In Paris, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin in an interview with a French newspaper laid out a series of changes France wanted in the resolution, although it was not clear how far he would go to see them fulfilled.