LOS ANGELES, Oct 2: A group of senators is working with Congressional leaders to reach an agreement on the wording of the resolution authorizing force against Iraq, Senator Tim Johnson (D) from South Dakota said.

He said the agreement would put some emphasis in the language of the current war strategy with Iraq to work with the United Nations. Johnson was speaking at a luncheon gathering of prominent southern Californian Pakistanis at the residence of Ahmed Ali, President of Council of Pakistan-American Affairs (COPAA) here.

“We are working so that we do not go with an unilateral or preemptive mindset and to enforce UN resolutions, which are already in place, and work with our allies,” Johnson, who defeated pro-India Larry Pressler in 1996, said.

The senator, who is the only senator whose son served at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, said if the country went alone it would risk losing not only the moral high ground “but complicate our war against terror, if we alienate, particularly the Islamic nations of the Middle East, who have been very cooperative in our war with Al-Qaeda in many instances.”

On other hand, Johnson said the United States had still much more to do to follow-up in Afghanistan in term of nation-building which the US had never been good at.

The senator also expressed concern that in the absence of a long- term political outlook the attack in Iraq would lead to desired results.

He warned, in case, the war ended up as a large-scale military involvement the US administration should best prepare itself for a long-term presence in Iraq because there has been no significant domestic opposition in Iraq “though we have Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north but neither of them are capable of running Baghdad.”

“I think the way to deal with that is to make sure that we have as much of international consensus as possible. To work with our allies so that we are part of a multinational census,” Johnson said.