Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/iraqmnf121807.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 18 -- We are a sovereign state, was the message of Iraq's UN ambassador, Hamid al-Bayati, in the run up to Tuesday's passage of "the last" UN resolution authorizing the multi-national force in Iraq. The resolution was passed with a letter annexed from prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, asking that Iraq's "independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity" be respected. But out in the real world, Turkey has bombed northern Iraq, and has sent troops in, hunting down members of the Kurdish Workers Party, PKK. This real-world problem was not allowed to intrude on Tuesday's Security Council love fest. UK Ambassador John Sawers recited that "on 16 December, last Sunday, security responsibility for Basra province passed from Multinational Force to Iraqi control. Basra was the last of the four southern provinces of Iraq previously under the security control of the UK-led Multinational Division (South-East)." There is, of course, more to this. A poll in Basra, conducted by BBC no less, found that 85% of Basrawiris found the UK's role negative. The UK leaves Basra to a fight of Shia militias, while British Petroleum fights with Total, Chevron and ExxonMobil for contracts in the oil-rich region.
During Tuesday's Council proceeding, UN Controller Warren Sach provided a terse briefing in his role as the UN's representative on the International Advisory and Monitoring Board. He noted that oil is still not metered; afterwards he told Inner City Press that Shell has a contract to look into the problem. He critiqued irregularities in Iraqi procurement procedures, ironic in light of the currently controversy around the UN waiving any competition before awarding a $250 million no-bid contract to Lockheed Martin for Darfur peacekeeping infrastructure. In the hallway outside the Council chamber, Sach told Inner City Press and other media outlet that the oil bartering he'd referred to takes places mostly with Syria, not Iran. And so it goes...
