HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland - Buoyed by battlefield successes, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are set to insist on Tuesday that they welcome a U.N. role in postwar Iraq in answer to European outrage -- but not as the controlling authority. The two leaders, in their third face-to-face meeting in less than a month, have turned their attention to the postwar period now that U.S. and British troops seem to have the upper hand in the war, and are expected to paper over whatever differences they have on the extent of the U.N. role. They met over dinner on Monday night at the 18th century, Georgian-style Hillsborough castle, and are meeting again on Tuesday morning before holding a concluding news conference.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said differences between Bush and Blair on a U.N. role had been overblown, and that not even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wanted the United Nations to be in charge of postwar Iraq. The United States so far has said the United Nations should help relieve the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and that any other role should be discussed. Britain wants to gain wide international support, and U.N. endorsement, for the future of postwar Iraq. The debate over what the United Nations should do in Iraq threatens to erupt into the same kind of bitter fight within the Security Council that raged over the authorization of military force against Iraq. France, Germany and Russia, the main voices opposed to the U.S.-led war, said last Friday the United Nations would have to play a key role in rebuilding the country because it alone had legitimate authority. And Gulf Arab states -- key regional U.S. allies -- said on Monday the Iraqi people should decide their own future after the war is over and called for a leading U.N. role in Iraq.
DIPLOMATIC BATTLE
Powell said that "having paid the cost in lives," the United States and its war allies "must have a leading role." He said the United States and Britain were working on a new U.N. resolution or resolutions that would lay out the U.N. role. "Let's not fight that fight again," Powell said of the pre-war diplomatic battle. U.S. officials said possible U.N. resolutions would affirm Iraq's territorial integrity, ensure rapid delivery of humanitarian relief, and endorse an "appropriate post-conflict administration." The United States is pushing ahead with plans for military control in the immediate postwar period, followed by a phased-in Iraqi Interim Authority with Americans in key advisory positions. The authority would include Iraqis from both inside and outside Iraq and would set the stage for a new Iraqi government. While Powell said "the hostilities phase is coming to a conclusion," the British side was more circumspect. "On both sides there is caution about over-stating the progress that we are making," a spokesman for Blair said after Bush and Blair took a stroll on the castle grounds on Monday night. "Neither side underestimates the difficulties still to be faced...It is dangerous to take victory for granted in any way."
BUSH, PEACE AND NORTHERN IRELAND
The U.S. president's first visit to Belfast was a political payback for Blair, who has stood by him throughout the Iraq crisis and flown twice across the Atlantic for war councils this year. Blair has been pushing for the United States to take a more active role in seeking a Middle East peace solution to deflect Arab and European criticism about the Iraq war. The two leaders were discussing the Middle East. Bush plans to outline a "roadmap" to a Palestinian state once the Palestinians confirm a new prime minister and forms a new government. The setting near Belfast allowed the two leaders to discuss the situation in British-ruled Northern Ireland, where peace remains elusive despite the Good Friday accord of five years ago. Bush and Blair were to meet Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Northern Irish politicians as well. Two days after Bush leaves, Blair and Ahern will use the fifth anniversary of the Good Friday deal to return to Hillsborough to present their plans for reviving home rule. Bush has displayed little personal interest in Northern Ireland, as opposed to his predecessor Bill Clinton who was a key negotiator of the Good Friday accord, but hoped his presence will help prod the parties along.//