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Us ready without un { March 25 2003 }

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   http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2446646

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2446646

U.S. Says Ready to Rebuild Iraq Without U.N.
Tue March 25, 2003 02:08 PM ET
By Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will pay most of the cost to rebuild Iraq if it sticks to its plans to set up a joint military-civilian occupation run solely by Americans and Iraqi collaborators.

The tab will be billion of dollars higher if the U.N. Security Council forces Washington to act alone by refusing to endorse the U.S.-installed administration or allow U.N. agencies to contribute to reconstruction.

Important members of the Security Council, including France and Germany, have said they would oppose any post-facto approval of the U.S. and British invasion and believe that the United Nations should be at the center of reconstruction.

A U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said: "If we must, we will do it (reconstruction) among the coalition of the willing that we have formed for this military action."

But apart from Britain and possibly Japan, none of Washington's other allies in the invasion are likely to make a serious contribution to rebuilding Iraq, a task which could cost $20 billion in the first year alone.

The official said the United States was still planning to install retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner as civil administrator in Iraq, and Barbara Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen, as his coordinator for civil administrator.

Garner might not be welcome among some Iraqis because of his support for Israel, expressed in a 2000 letter saying that a strong Jewish state is an asset to the United States.

The letter was sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the hard-line lobbying group linked to the idea that invading Iraq and overthrowing President Saddam Hussein in good for both Israel and the United States.

IRAQI OPPOSITION GROUPS

But one U.S. official said that Garner had been working well with Iraqi opposition groups. An Iraqi opposition official said that they did not object to his background.

The U.S. plan is to install U.S. civilians in Iraqi ministries alongside Iraqis appointed by an interim Iraqi authority made up of Iraqi opposition leaders, technocrats in exile and insider Iraqis not yet identified.

"We can't really make the decisions on these insiders until we get into Baghdad and see what we've got there.

"We may find ourselves faced with the current minister of finance who says 'Thank God you're here, here's my whole plan', and he might be the logical choice," the U.S. official said.

Alongside the executive, the United States is planning for an Iraqi consultative council which would prepare a new constitution and pave the way for elections.

The plan falls far short, however, of what the United Nations and some of the Security Council members will expect if they are to authorize U.N. participation in reconstruction work.

"Anything that is long-term cannot be done unless the Security Council authorizes it," said a U.N. official.

"The problem is who is the host government and so under whose authority would we start operating there. We cannot say we are going to operate under the control of the Pentagon," added the official, who asked not to be named.

The restrictions will not stop U.N. agencies from doing humanitarian relief work in Iraq, which it has a duty to perform regardless of who is in power.

The United States will argue that opponents of the U.S. and British invasion are "politicizing" the reconstruction debate to the detriment of the Iraqi people, the U.S. official said.

"We understand that people may want to make a political statement about the United States, but does that really suit the long-term goals of the Iraqi people and the people of the region?" the official said.

French President Jacques Chirac sees it differently.

"France would not accept a resolution which authorizes military intervention and gives the United States and Britain administrative powers in Iraq," he said last Friday.

German Overseas Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said on Tuesday those bearing the responsibility for the war should also carry the main cost of rebuilding Iraq.

She also said the United Nations should be at the heart of the reconstruction process. "There must not be a U.S. protectorate (in Iraq)," she added.

The divisions in the Security Council have also complicated attempts to adjust the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq. The United Nations has proposed that it take control of oil sales but opponents of the United States are wary of any proposals which would appear to legitimize a U.S. occupation.



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