By NNN-KUNA
United Nations : Iraq has urged the UN Security Council to extend, for the last time, later this month the mandate of the US-led Multinational Forces (MNF) on its territory for one more year, because it is the government’s intention to have the Iraqi national forces take over full security functions all over the country in 2008.
In a letter to the Security Council president, Italy, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said Iraq requests the extension of the MNF mandate for “a period of 12 months, beginning Dec 31 2007” or earlier, and that Iraq considers this to be “its final request” to the council for such extension and that the council deals with the situation in Iraq “without the need for action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter,” because Iraq is a sovereign state.
The council, diplomats said, is working on a draft resolution in that regard and that the vote is expected to take place in the third week of December.
Al-Maliki said Iraqi national forces successfully took over the security functions of the MNF in eight governorates and it is “our intention” that they will continue to take over those security functions until all 18 governorates are under their full control in 2008.
He stressed that Iraq should be “treated as an independent and fully sovereign state.” For that reason, he explained, the functions of recruiting, training, arming and equipping the Iraqi Army and Iraq’s security forces are the responsibility of the Government of Iraq, and Iraq will also be responsible for arrest and detention tasks and if even those tasks are carried out by MNF, it will be carried out in close coordination and cooperation with the Government of Iraq.
He also requested the council to extend for one more year the mandates of the Development Fund for Iraq and the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, stressing that Iraq is “striving to form a new partnership with the international community in order to build a dynamic network designed to transform its economy and integrate it with other world economies through the International Compact with Iraq.”
He further asked the council to review its resolution relating to the deposit of 5 per cent of Iraq’s proceeds from oil into the Compensation Fund “with a view to reducing the percentage as much as possible, since the deposit of such a high percentage creates financial burden for Iraq at a time when it is in dire need for those funds to rebuild its infrastructure, which was destroyed during the wars waged by the previous regime.”
The increase in the price of oil means that the real amount represented by 5 per cent is “at least five times greater than it was.”
He informed the council that Iraq signed a declaration of principles with the US “with a view to establishing a long-term cooperative and friendly relationship.”
Iraqi envoy Hamid Al-Bayati later told reporters that it will be up to the other MNF participating countries to keep their forces in Iraq, and to that end they have to have a bilateral agreement with Iraq just like the Iraq-US agreement, adding that “the largest force (to stay in Iraq) will be from the US.”