Russia, France, Syria Try to Block Bush Administration From Humanitarian Role

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U.S. Hits Snag in U.N. on Aid for Iraq
Russia, France, Syria Try to Block Bush Administration From Humanitarian Role

By Colum Lynch and Kenneth Bredemeier
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 26, 2003; Page A29


UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- The Bush administration's efforts to tap into billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue to finance the relief effort in Iraq remained at an impasse today as Russia, France and Syria opposed any immediate role for the United States and Britain in administering the humanitarian program.

The dispute stalled negotiations in the U.N. Security Council aimed at granting Secretary General Kofi Annan a new mandate to coordinate the delivery of food and medicine with U.S. and British authorities in territory secured by coalition forces. It also cast doubts on the ability of the United States to rally the Security Council around its efforts to rebuild Iraq.

Russian, Syrian and French diplomats have voiced concern in closed-door meetings this week that a U.S. proposal to instruct Annan to consult with all "relevant authorities" -- including Iraq and coalition forces -- in administering the U.N. oil-for-food agreement would implicitly legitimize the U.S.-led war. Syria's U.N. ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, said it also would violate Iraq's sovereignty.

"The oil is Iraqi oil," Wehbe said. "The government of Iraq is still there, and it is still a member of the United Nations. So the interference in the country is in contradiction to the [U.N.] charter and the principles of international law."

U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice traveled to New York today to discuss the diplomatic logjam with Annan. Administration officials said Rice raised concern about the worsening humanitarian situation and expressed hope that the council impasse could be broken soon.

She also assured Annan that the United States will move as "soon as possible" after toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "to secure sovereignty for the Iraqi people," according to White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Annan said the United Nations was prepared to do "all it could" to relieve the suffering of Iraqi civilians, according to his spokesman. But he said the chief responsibility for addressing the humanitarian consequences of war would fall to the United States and Britain if they take control of the country. "The U.N. would have limited capacity" to assist Iraqi civilians "until security conditions allow for the safe return of staff to affected areas." Until then, humanitarian assistance would have to be provided by the United States and its coalition partners in those areas under their control.

The oil-for-food program, which was launched in December 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil to purchase food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. On the eve of the invasion, the U.N. chief suspended the program and evacuated more than 300 relief workers who supervised the Iraqi government's distribution of food to the population.

Anticipating a swift Iraqi defeat, Annan appealed to the Security Council last week to grant him authority to take control of the Iraqi government's food-distribution program.

The U.N. chief's request, which included several elements from a U.S. and British draft resolution, drew an unusually harsh reaction from Iraq's U.N. envoy, Mohammed Douri. The Iraqi diplomat charged that Annan's appeal constituted a "flagrant material breach" of international law and that the U.N. chief was behaving like a "high commissioner" serving the colonial interests of Washington and London.

Mid-level council diplomats met twice today in an effort to narrow differences on a resolution that would ensure that more than $10 billion in Iraqi goods -- including $2.4 billion worth of food -- approved under the oil-for-food agreement could enter Iraq when security allows.