Powell: Iraq Will Have No Veto on U.S.-Led Force

Iraq’s new interim government will have no veto over future military operations by American-led forces after the U.S.-British occupation formally ends on June 30, Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

The U.N. Security Council, divided over how much authority Baghdad will have over U.S.-led troops, focuses on the issue on Thursday, when Iraq’s foreign minister addresses the 15-nation body in an effort to shape a new U.N. resolution.

Powell said the interim government would be fully sovereign and able to reach agreements with Washington on how Iraqi and U.S.-led forces would operate after the handover.

"There could be a situation where we have to act and there may be a disagreement, and we have to act to protect ourselves or to accomplish a mission," Powell told Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Center in an interview aired late on Wednesday.

His remarks again appeared at odds with British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s contention last week that the Iraqi government would be able to veto operations such as the U.S. assault on insurgents in Falluja in April.

Powell, describing the Falluja example as a "small hypothetical," said he expected consent, coordination and cooperation with the Iraqi side to be the general rule.

"The understanding we will enter into with this new government is that there will be mechanisms at a political level and at a military level where both sides will be familiar with the plans of the other," he said.

"The plans will be integrated into a single operational plan," he said, citing Germany and Korea as sovereign countries where such arrangements with U.S. troops had worked in the past.

NO IRAQI VETO

Powell made clear there were no plans to spell out the terms under which U.S. forces would work with their Iraqi "partners" in the U.N. resolution on Iraq’s future.

"The resolution does not talk about a veto over any military operations," he said of an amended U.S.-British draft.

"You can’t use the word ’veto’," Powell said. "The Iraqi government is sovereign and... it has said that we consent to the presence of coalition forces, we want coalition forces there, we are going to coordinate and cooperate with each other."

France, Russia and China, who have the power to block resolutions in the Security Council, say the latest draft is still too vague over what sovereignty means after the U.S.-led occupation officially ends.

Russia, in particular, wants to see the reaction of Iraqis to the new government before a vote on the measure.

"This is a very important resolution for us. And definitely we need to have our own input," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told reporters after arriving in New York on Wednesday. (Reuters)

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