October 20, 2003	Monday	Sha'aban 23, 1424

BAGHDAD: The United States may take comfort from the Iraq resolution it muscled through the UN Security Council last week, but the task of quelling violent resistance and rebuilding a broken country remains as tough as ever.

Doubts persist over whether key nations will respond to the resolution’s appeal for more troops and money — and some, such as France, Germany, Russia and Pakistan, have already sent negative signals.

The US-led administration ruling post-war Iraq says it is delighted with what a spokesman called the resolution’s “strong political message” for the Iraqi people.

Indeed the unanimously adopted resolution throws a broad cloak of UN legitimacy over the US-commanded security force, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

It also gives the United Nations scope for a political role in the transition to a sovereign Iraqi government, but the occupying powers whose invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in April remain in the driving seat.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has made clear that security risks preclude any early move to reinforce the skeleton UN staff left in Iraq after the August bombing of their Baghdad headquarters forced many to leave.

Annan, who had backed French and German demands for the resolution to set a timetable for self-rule, has warned that resistance will grow under the occupation.

UN COVER: Members of the Governing Council said the resolution is useful because it dilutes perceptions that Iraq is wholly under the thumb of the United States and Britain.

“It is not sufficient, but it is in a good direction because it recognises the Governing Council and gives more responsibility to Iraqis,” said Adel Abdul Mahdi, spokesman of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose Shia leader sits on the council.

Independent council member Muwafaq al-Rubaiye welcomed the resolution’s creation of a multinational force. “Of course we in the council are against any increase in foreign forces, but a multinational force is better than a US-British force,” he said.

Rubaiye said the resolution’s call for financial contributions was helpful ahead of this week’s conference in Madrid, where donors will be asked to stump up funds for reconstruction costs estimated at $55 billion.

He said the council was keen to expand the UN role in the political process, though the resolution does not let the world body act as an independent political partner.

“The bigger the role of a multinational force and the United Nations, the better we feel,” Rubaiye said. “It will make us feel less occupied.”

However, the Governing Council itself has struggled to gain legitimacy in the eyes of many Iraqis, who may pay little heed to the formulations of the latest UN resolution.

The fighters who have killed 103 US troops in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1 may well view the Security Council as a puppet of the United States for its role in maintaining 13 years of crippling sanctions until Saddam’s overthrow.

And many Iraqis resent foreign troops on their soil, even those who rejoice at Saddam’s fall and recognise they could not have achieved it by themselves.

QUESTIONABLE IMPACT: Charles Tripp, a British scholar of Iraq, said the UN resolution might have soothed friction between the United States and its allies, and would reassure Iraqis linked to US-inspired structures such as the Governing Council.

“Not many of them have real authority in Iraq,” he said of the council’s members, many of whom are drawn from opposition groups exiled during the Saddam era.

“Depending on the United States was irksome, so if they can pretend they have a UN mandate it helps their self-confidence, but we have to be careful about whether it will help them muster more support in Iraq.”

Tripp questioned whether the UN resolution would make much difference on the ground.

“Does it make the occupation any more tolerable? Does it improve the security situation and help economic reconstruction? I’m sceptical,” he said.—Reuters