[Peace-discuss] and now we know that one dictator was replaced by another...

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Powell: U.S. Won't Hand Iraq Over to U.N.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 4:17 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Heading for talks with reluctant allies, Secretary of 
State Colin Powell says the United States won't turn over all authority in Iraq to 
the United Nations.

``The U.N. isn't ready to handle it,'' Powell told ARD, a German television 
station, in an interview released Friday as he flew to Geneva for the talks.

``We want to work with the U.N., but we can't simply cede all responsibility 
and authority to the U.N.,'' he said in advance of meetings Saturday with 
British, French, Russian and Chinese foreign ministers and U.N. Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan.

The United States, hoping its allies will provide troops and money in the 
face of continued attacks and mounting costs in Iraq, has proposed a U.N. 
Security Council resolution creating a multinational force under a unified U.N. 
command with an American commander.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, in an article published Friday 
in the newspaper Le Monde, said a provisional Iraqi government should be set 
up in a month and a draft constitution should be ready by the end of the year.

The State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said in response that ``the 
question of the time-scale first and foremost is for the Iraqis to answer. 
It's their country. We want to see them take sovereignty over that country as 
quickly as possible.''

Chances of nailing down an agreement this weekend in Geneva and at the United 
Nations in New York appear slim.

But Powell said, ``I don't think there is a need to have a fight about this.''

``Clearly the U.N. has a vital role to play,'' Powell said. ``We've said this 
from the very beginning. And we should discuss and describe in the resolution 
what that role is.''

Asked if the United Nations should play a leading role, Powell replied: ``I 
said vital. I don't know what leading means.''

Powell said Wednesday in an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite 
network financed by Qatar, that Iraq would face ``total chaos'' if the United 
States surrendered to demands for a hasty U.S. transfer of authority to Iraqi 
control.

Powell also said it was not practical at present for the United States to 
transfer control to the United Nations.

``We want to transfer sovereignty for Iraq from the Coalition Provisional 
Authority to the Iraqis as fast as we can, but we must do it in a responsible 
way,'' Powell said.