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...UN Security Council is probably the last place many would expect the Bush administration to go to discuss the next step in Iraq. But the White House wants international sanctions against Iraq lifted immediately, in order to free up Iraqi oil revenue for reconstruction. And the UN Security Council is not only the sole body legally empowered to lift those sanctions; it is also legally in control of Iraq's oil revenues right now. That's why the U.S. plans next week to take its call for lifting sanctions to the same Security Council that failed to authorize its invasion...
...appears to have changed the terms of discussion at the Council. The antiwar bloc led by France, Russia and Germany looks intent on cooperating with the U.S. and its coalition partners, having responded positively last week to their call for a revival and expansion of the UN oil-for-food program to meet Iraq's humanitarian needs. Still, important differences remain, and the sanctions issue may be the last opportunity for the antiwar Europeans to exert any leverage. France said this week that the coalition forces have primary responsibility for maintaining security in Iraq, and that the UN's role...
...legal control of Iraq over to the U.S. or a U.S.-made Iraqi authority - at least not without some compromises. And the sanctions regime, to which France and Russia have for years demanded an end, is now ironically their only leverage through which to seek a role for the UN - and by extension, a modicum of influence for themselves - in Iraq's immediate future...
...Chirac has emphasized that France supports the lifting of sanctions, but that it is up to the UN to determine how that could be done. And that means some tough bargaining lies ahead. Despite the elimination of Saddam Hussein's regime, ending sanctions is no simple matter for the UN. The reason: the purpose of those sanctions was not regime-change; it was to force Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, and then, after that had been achieved, to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction. On the basis of current resolutions, the only legal mechanism by which the Security Council...
...Bush administration has thus far shown no inclination to invite the UN inspectors back into Iraq. Instead, the U.S. military has been sending its own inspection teams to scour the country for banned weapons, and has even reportedly tried to recruit some of Blix's staff to help...