Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/turkiraq121707.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 17 -- Over the weekend there was a cross-border bombing raid, Turkey into Iraq, and on Monday not a word of it in the UN Security Council. When Turkish soldier were being shot at across the border, similarly nothing was said in the Council. The standard, apparently, is not disturbances to international peace and security, but rather that none of the Permanent Five members of the Council have any over-arching interest in a topic. The U.S. would not want the Iraq - Turkey issue to be discussed at that UN, and therefore it is not. Last week Iraqi Ambassador Hamid Al Bayati stressed to the press that his country's sovereignty must be respected in the upcoming Security Council resolution, and on the ground, where, he said, no permanent bases would be accepted. But now the U.S. brags about opening Iraqi air space for Turkish bombing runs, and Iraq is not heard from.
In fact, final Council consultations had been scheduled for Monday afternoon, but then were cancelled. Indonesian Deputy Permanent Representative Hasan Kleib told Inner City Press that the slow-down in the MNF resolution concerned a dispute about the difference between "non-interference" and "non-intervention." Another Council diplomat, on the Permanent Five side, said that at the last minute the U.S. wanted to check with Iraq's Maliki if the text was alright with him, and called this an aftermath of the little trouble the U.S. had in the Council on the post-Annapolis resolution. That time, the U.S. formally introduced a draft resolution and then quickly withdrew it, after criticism from Israel.
Meanwhile, two days before the UN's budget is slated to be voted on, its proposed $185 million expenditure for a new headquarters in Iraq was introduced for the first time in the UN's budget committee. While on the overall budget it is the U.S. which is complaining most, on this item the U.S. is not complaining, as increased UN presence is viewed as helping the U.S.. But Monday Japan's representative criticized the late submission, suggesting that at this late stage the proposal should be separated from the rest of the budget. And the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions has just made public its critique of the Baghdad plan, listing issues that "need to be clarified before the proposal can be considered by the General Assembly," including the "nature of the requirement for the UN Office in Baghdad" and the "level of the financial and other contributions by the Government of Iraq." To be continued.
