Blair welcomes UN resolution

Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:00 AM

The Prime Minister has welcomed the UN Security Council's passing of a new Iraq resolution.

The resolution, which aims to map out the practical transfer of power to the new Iraqi administration, was passed unanimously.

This is the first time that the international community has been united on the course forward in Iraq for over a year.

Welcoming the vote, Mr Blair told reporters at the G8 summit: "This is an important milestone for a new Iraq.

"We all now want to put divisions of the past behind us and unite behind the vision of a modern and stable Iraq."

The new resolution states that as of 30th June the Coalition Provisional Authority will cease to exist.

Democratic elections are envisaged for no later than 31st January 2005.

The Iraqi government will have the power to request that troops leave, though this is extremely unlikely to happen.

Though the new Iraqi government will not have a veto over military operations of the international troops, there are frequent references in the document to partnership and consultation.

It is this commitment which is believed to have persuaded France and Russia to back the resolution.

Speaking last night to the BBC, the UK's ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, said: "What is fundamental in this resolution is that we are acknowledging a sovereign government in Iraq."

"We are acknowledging that it will have competence from July 1st and my colleagues have all rallied to that proposition. They have also rallied to the idea that the UN should play a leading part in the political process that has been defined."

Sir Emyr continued: "We have agreed that multi-national force the Iraqis want is going to stay there and it is going to have a new authority from this resolution we have passed today."

"What we have annexed to this resolution is the text of a letter from the Prime Minister of Iraq, setting out how he wants these arrangements to work. That is what we have accepted and what we have brought into the body of the resolution."

"There is no fudge. It is there in black and white and it reflects the wishes of the Iraqi government now coming into being."

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