With fewer than 100 days to go before Iraq resumes its sovereignty, U.S. officials say they think they have found a legal basis for U.S. troops to continue their military control over Iraq.
After months of concern about the legal status of the 110,000 U.S. troops who are expected to remain in Iraq after the occupation formally ends June 30, the officials say they think an existing UN resolution approving the presence of a multinational force in Iraq, approved by the Security Council in October, gives U.S. commanders the authority needed to maintain control after sovereignty is handed back.
Showing his confidence that the approach was grounded in international law, Paul Bremer, chief of the occupation authority, issued an executive order this week specifying that the newly formed Iraqi armed forces be placed under the control of the U.S. commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.
Bremer and other top U.S. officials say they think Security Council Resolution 1511, which conferred the mandate for the U.S.-led alliance, can be used to provide legal justification for the U.S. military command to operate until Dec. 31, 2005. That is when a timetable agreed on by Iraqi leaders envisages the final transition to an elected Iraqi government.
The plan, the U.S. officials say, will require the Security Council to review the resolution before it expires in October. But the United States also might seek a new resolution, hoping to placate Spain’s new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has said he will withdraw Spain’s contingent unless the force is under UN control.
The Americans hope they will not be forced to rely on a legalistic argument. They plan to negotiate with the interim Iraqi government in place after June 30 for the kind of “status of forces” agreement that the United States has in dozens of nations where its forces are deployed.
But if negotiations snag–many Iraqi political leaders are hostile to the foreign military presence–the Americans think they will be able to fall back on the UN resolution.
Some Iraqi politicians maintain that the UN mandate was intended to lapse at the return of sovereignty. But U.S. officials, citing a passage in the resolution saying that the mandate would expire “upon the completion of the political process,” argue that it will not lapse until a permanent Iraqi government takes office.
There were also questions about the effects of extending the primacy of the U.S. military.
A UN official said that while it would be a “practical reality” for U.S. domination to continue despite Iraqi self-rule, “it has to be done in a way that’s not offensive to Iraqis and the international community.”
A European diplomat said continued U.S. military control “sends the wrong signal” and “gives an impression of continuing foreign occupation.”
U.S. concern has focused primarily on Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a Shiite cleric who has rejected the interim constitution adopted by the Iraqi Governing Council, an advisory body handpicked by the Americans.
In Iraq on Thursday, a 1st Infantry Division soldier died and two were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded near Baqouba, the military said. The two wounded soldiers were in stable condition, The Associated Press reported.
In Fallujah, insurgents attacked a U.S. military convoy, and television footage showed an empty Humvee in flames. One Iraqi driver in a civilian car was killed in the crossfire.
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