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Us wants more nations help Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/21/sprj.irq.diplomacy/http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/21/sprj.irq.diplomacy/
U.S. wants more nations to help in Iraq
Powell, Annan exploring new U.N. resolution
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) --Following this week's deadly bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the United States will seek a U.N. resolution to encourage more countries to bolster security in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.
"We will be working with the United Nations representatives in Baghdad on security matters," Powell said. "We want the humanitarian workers and other workers in Iraq -- reconstruction workers and others -- to have a safe environment.
"We will work closely with the United Nations to make sure that they can perform their work in as safe an environment as is possible considering the circumstances."
Powell made the statement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan by his side at U.N. headquarters in New York. The two men met Thursday morning and spoke afterward with reporters.
Powell said his colleagues and Annan's staff are exploring with U.N. Security Council members "language that might call on member states to do more."
About 140,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq, with more than 20,000 forces from other countries, mostly Britain.
Annan is scheduled to meet Friday with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to discuss the situation in Iraq. Powell and Annan are set to confer again Friday.
The diplomatic moves come in the wake of Tuesday's bombing in Baghdad that killed at least 23 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq.
Powell noted that an international presence already exists in Iraq, with about 30 nations contributing troops under U.S.-led coalition control. Five other nations are in the process of sending troops, and 14 others are in talks with the coalition about contributions, he said.
India previously declined a U.S. request to send 17,000 peacekeepers to Iraq.
India and other countries have cited the need for a new U.N. resolution authorizing a military operation before they can send any troops.
"India remains ready to respond to the urgent needs of the Iraqi people. Were there to be an explicit U.N. mandate for the purpose, the government of India could consider the deployment of our troops in Iraq," External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said in July. (Full story)
Powell said he hopes the Security Council will write a resolution to allow countries such as India to become involved.
"Perhaps additional language and a new resolution might encourage others," Powell said. "There is a willingness to come together to help the Iraqi people."
Despite disagreements among U.N. members over the Iraqi war, Annan said the issue of Iraqi stability is of "great concern" to all, regardless of political positions.
"The stability of Iraq should be in everyone's interest," he said. "It is urgent to help bring peace to Iraq."
Annan said the United Nations didn't intend to send U.N. "blue helmets," or peacekeepers.
The United States has brushed aside earlier discussions to assemble a U.N.-led coalition force in Iraq.
Annan offered the idea of "a multinational force that oversees the security arrangements with the U.N., focusing on the economic, political and social areas where we do our best work, including the humanitarian aid."
The Security Council, in a statement read late Wednesday by the council president, Syrian Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, condemned the attack on the U.N. building in Baghdad and reaffirmed its determination "to assist the Iraqi people to build peace and justice in their country and to determine their own political future by themselves."
On Thursday, after remarks before U.N. employees, Annan called for a moment of silence in mourning for lost colleagues.
"Our hearts are heavy with loss," Annan said. "Our senses reel from the sights and sounds of one of the darkest days in the history of the United Nations."
About 350 U.N. staff members and others attended a candlelight vigil for the bombing victims Wednesday night in the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in the shadow of the U.N. headquarters in New York.
On Thursday, the U.S. military demolished a corner of the damaged building in Baghdad because of structural instability.
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