UNITED NATIONS — Struggling to figure out what to do next in Iraq, more and more heads are turning to the United Nations.
President Bush said Tuesday night that he was counting on U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to figure out "the nature of the entity we'll be handing sovereignty over" to on June 30. Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, who is expected to be the Democratic nominee for president, said Monday that a U.N. high commissioner should replace the top U.S. official in July. Members of Congress are demanding that the U.S. bring in more international help through a new resolution in the Security Council.
But U.N. officials and diplomats say those expectations are not only inflated, but they are also dangerous. Brahimi, who arrived in Iraq 10 days ago to talk with its factions about the form of the future government, said before going that he didn't have the answer -- only the Iraqis did. His job was simply to help them lay it out.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said the U.N. doesn't want to replace the U.S.-led occupation. On Tuesday, he added that given the security situation, there were no plans to go back into Iraq in the near future.
"For the foreseeable future, insecurity is going to be a major constraint for us, and so I cannot say right now that I'm going to be sending in a large U.N. team," Annan told reporters.
The Security Council is expecting to adopt a resolution in June recognizing the new interim government -- whatever its form -- clarifying the U.N.'s role and authorizing a multinational force under U.S. command to continue to provide security. But at this point, diplomats expect the resolution to be largely a formality. For it to pull in additional international help, the U.S. must make a serious effort to give the U.N. a clear and autonomous role, and to ensure that a multinational force is seen as a stabilizer, not an occupying presence.
Gunter Pleuger, German ambassador to the U.N., said his country had no plans to increase its participation in Iraq soon, with or without a new resolution. Algerian Ambassador Abdallah Baali said many countries would wait to see how the transition fared before committing to help.
"People have to feel that it is not just a transfer of sovereignty, but a real transfer of power. If that's what people perceive, they will feel more encouraged to contribute troops, humanitarian assistance and reconstruction," Baali said.
