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| Wednesday, 9 June 2004 |
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Unanimous support for Iraq resolution expected as car bomb kills 10, injures over 100 UNITED NATIONS, Tuesday (AFP,Reuters) The United States and Britain were headed to a key victory on Iraq on Tuesday with the UN Security Council expected to give unanimous support for the June 30 handover of power in Baghdad. The two allies, stymied by the council last year over the war to bring down Saddam Hussein, were expected to get full backing on a UN resolution, one of the last pieces in the diplomatic puzzle before Iraq begins self-rule. France confirmed its support hours before the council was expected to vote on the wide-ranging resolution that spells out the legal framework for the fledgling interim government announced in Baghdad last week. A last-minute compromise by Washington and London late Monday drew the support of a French government that had been vocal in its criticism of plans for the roughly 160,000 US-led troops that will remain in Iraq. Meanwhile a suspected suicide car bomb exploded in front of the mayor's office in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday killing 10 civilians and wounding over 100, the U.S. military, Iraqi police and witnesses said. The blast went off at about 9 a.m. (0500 GMT) when the street was full of people heading to work. It caused extensive damage to the city hall, which houses the mayor's offices, and several other buildings in the area. Police said the mayor, Salem al-Hadj Isa, who is also the head of the local province's security commission, was the blast's target, but he was unharmed. An earlier car bomb blast in front of a U.S. base in the town of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, killed at least four people and wounded 11. Witnesses said the Mosul bomb was placed in an orange and white taxi - ubiquitous in Iraq - which was carrying three people when it detonated as the mayor's convoy was passing. The mayor's office said several of his bodyguards were wounded in the explosion, which destroyed at least nine vehicles. Earlier France had demanded that Iraq be given a virtual veto over US-led military operations amid a bloody campaign by insurgents apparently bent on derailing the allies' vision of the country after Saddam's ouster. The United States and Britain initially snubbed the demand Monday but later amended their draft resolution to pledge that US-led forces would cooperate with the Iraqi government on "sensitive offensive operations." The subtle change in language drew a warm welcome from French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who said France would now throw its weight behind the resolution even though it did not get the Iraqi veto it wanted. "That won't prevent us from a positive vote," Barnier told French radio, all but sealing a deal after weeks of haggling on the 15-nation council. He said it was the "first time in this affair" that French diplomatic requests had been honoured by the United States and Britain. The revised version was still far from the Iraqi veto that Paris had wanted, but marked a willingness of the United States and Britain to clinch a deal with the June 30 transfer of sovereignty little more than three weeks away. "We've made a major effort," US ambassador John Negroponte said after hours of back-and-forth negotiations. "We think this is an excellent resolution and we would expect to put it to a vote tomorrow afternoon. This is definitely a new phase in the political history of Iraq - the restoration of full sovereignty." Chilean ambassador Heraldo Munoz said there could be some fine-tuning overnight to make "a good resolution even better," but indicated the broad support of his own country as well as fellow council members Spain and Brazil. |
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