Posted on 05/03/2003 4:45:44 AM PDT by Clive
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States plans to set up an international military force in three regions of Iraq, with Poland and Britain controlling two zones and U.S. forces the third, a senior U.S. administration official said.
Six European countries have agreed to provide troops for the international stabilization force, the official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States and Britain also are preparing a Security Council resolution that gives the United Nations a role in humanitarian relief in Iraq but not peacekeeping, the official said.
The draft resolution would limit the UN role to helping with refugees and displaced people, reconstruction and humanitarian assistance, the official said. The United States and Britain agree on all but a few of the fine details of the resolution, the official said, though there is no timetable on when it would be introduced.
UN officials are already in Iraq providing humanitarian relief. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said this week that the body has no interest in policing a postwar Iraq, although it could contribute to the political resuscitation of the country.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discussed the resolution with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon on Friday as he ended a tour of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf region.
En route back to Washington, Rumsfeld said he hoped the United Nations would play a role, but he did not discuss the draft resolution outlining that role.
Hoon, who joined Rumsfeld in a news conference at London's Heathrow Airport, also did not mention the draft resolution but said "we are right to be optimistic about the way forward" in Iraq.
International stability forces will be sent to Iraq as soon as possible, the U.S. official said, though it was unclear when that would be. Those troops will work to restore and maintain order and supervise humanitarian projects such as the restoration of water and electricity and delivery of food and medical aid.
The six countries contributing troops are Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Denmark, the Netherlands and Bulgaria, the official said. Representatives of those countries will meet with British officials May 7 and Polish officials May 22 to determine what forces each country will contribute and whether they will be put under British or Polish command.
The U.S. part of the stability force will be comprised of American troops. While that portion is likely to consist of a division , about 20,000, the troop strength of the other two sectors has yet to be determined, the official said.
The international stabilization force would be under the U.S. war commander, Gen. Tommy Franks.
At least initially, the coalition stability forces will augment rather than replace the 135,000 American troops inside Iraq, the official said. The stability forces will focus on providing security and humanitarian relief while other U.S. troops focus on rooting out remaining forces of the former Saddam Hussein government and other armed elements in Iraq.
The more troops other countries contribute to the stability effort, the fewer U.S. troops will be needed inside Iraq, Rumsfeld said.
Planning for both the UN resolution and the international security force left out France, Germany and Russia, three powers that vehemently opposed the war in Iraq.
The outlines for the international stability force were decided at a conference Hoon held Wednesday with representatives from 16 countries, mostly NATO members. Other countries including the Philippines, South Korea, Qatar and Australia agreed to send other help such as field hospitals, engineers, explosive ordnance disposal teams or nuclear, biological and chemical weapons specialist.
The U.S., British and Polish sectors will be drawn to take into account ethnic, religious, tribal and political factions within Iraq, the official said. For example, although ethnic Kurds are the majority in large parts of northern Iraq, there are also large numbers of Kurds within Baghdad.
Some Arab countries also want to play a role in the stability operation in Iraq but are reluctant to send troops because of political, religious and ethnic considerations, the official said. Countries in the Persian Gulf Co-operation Council have offered to donate money for the effort.
Rumsfeld also met Friday with King Abdullah of Jordan, an American ally in the Middle East. Defence officials say Jordan provided key help in the Iraq war, acting as a staging area for U.S. special operations raids into western Iraq to prevent missiles from being fired at Jordan or Israel.
Rumsfeld did not say what the two discussed.
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