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UN recognises end of mandate of Iraq’s multinational forces

* Security Council unanimously extends protection for Iraqi assets from seizure for one year

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council on Monday formally recognised the end of the mandate of the US-led multinational forces in Iraq at the end of this month as requested by the Baghdad government.

The UN mandate is expiring after the US, which supplies 95 percent of foreign troops in Iraq, recently signed an agreement with the Baghdad government allowing its combat forces to remain in the country until the end of 2011.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted a US-British resolution that recognises “the expiration of the mandate of the multinational force at the end of December 31 2008”.

Monday’s resolution was passed as Iraqi lawmakers on Monday delayed a crucial vote to determine the future of British and other non-US foreign troops because of a row over the assembly speaker.

It was not immediately known when the vote would now be held, although parliament was due to go into recess on Tuesday and a UN mandate governing the presence of foreign troops in Iraq expires on December 31.

The resolution to be put to the 275-member Iraqi parliament would mandate the government to sign bilateral deals with each of the other coalition countries which still have troops on Iraqi soil.

The parliamentary vote will mostly affect the presence of forces from Britain, the key US ally in the 2003 invasion whose 4,100 men and women are concentrated in the south of the country.

Australia, Estonia, Romania and El Salvador have also small numbers of troops in Iraq.

After US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, the Security Council established the mandate of the multinational forces to maintain security in the country.

The Security Council resolution includes in an annex a letter from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in which he recalls that the last extension of the MNF’s mandate, approved in December 2007, would be the last one.

The letter expressed Maliki’s gratitude “on behalf of the government and people of Iraq ... to the governments of the states that have contributed to those forces and to the forces themselves for the services rendered during their presence in the territory, waters and airspace of Iraq”. “This termination marks a turning point for Iraq and the end of an important era for the

UN and above all, the contributing countries to the MNF-1,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the council.

Iraqi assets: The Security Council also voted unanimously to maintain UN protection for billions of dollars of Iraqi assets against seizure by governments, companies or individuals until the end of 2009.

Iraq’s financial assets, oil shipments and property are currently shielded by a UN resolution authorising the US-led multinational force in Iraq, which expires on December 31. Maliki wrote to council members that the government inherited debts and claims from Saddam Hussein’s 23-year rule and has made “great progress” in settling them. But he said “much remains to be done” and the government needs its oil money and other assets.

“Oil revenues constitute 95 percent of government resources,” Maliki wrote, “and these claims have an impact on reconstruction and the economic transformations taking place in Iraq, and consequently pose a grave threat to Iraq’s stability and security and by extension to international peace and security”. agencies

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