Iraq tells UN it wants multinational force to stay

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iraq has formally notified the
U.N. Security Council that it wants the U.S.-led multinational
force to remain in place for now as Iraqi troops and police are
not yet ready to ensure security on their own.

“While great achievements have been gained by the people of
Iraq in the realm of political development, the continuation of
the mandate of the multinational force in Iraq remains
necessary and essential for our security,” Foreign Minister
Hoshiyar Zebari said in a letter dated June 9 and circulated at
the United Nations on Tuesday.

The letter’s release coincided with a five-hour visit to
Baghdad by President Bush, who told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki that “when America gives its word, it keeps its
word.”

A resolution adopted by the 15-nation Security Council in
November extended the force’s mandate through the end of 2006
but called for a review by June 15. The resolution said the
council would terminate the mandate at any time if Iraq’s
government asked it to do so.

Some 130,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq, making up the
vast majority of the multinational force. The U.S. death toll
in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion is nearing 2,500, fueling
U.S. public unease. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been
killed.

The November 8 resolution also required Iraq to keep
depositing the money from its oil sales into an international
account monitored by an outside watchdog to demonstrate it was
using its oil wealth for the benefit of its people.

Zebari said his government still welcomed that arrangement
as it showed Iraq’s donors and creditors that it was “managing
its resources and debts responsibly to the best benefit of the
Iraqi people.”

The Security Council initially set up the special account,
and created an international monitoring board to watch over it,
in May 2003 to ensure the U.S.-led occupation did not misuse
Iraqi resources.

The resolution also authorized the multinational force to
continue taking and holding its own prisoners in Iraq. There
were 15,387 detainees in the force’s custody as of the end of
April, 7.5 percent more than at the end of February, according
to the latest U.N. report on human rights in Iraq.