October 17 2003 at 02:15AM
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By Irwin Arieff
New York - The United States pulled off a diplomatic coup in the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, transforming its draft resolution on Iraq from a loser to a winner in just six days of behind-the-scenes arm twisting.
Last week, the State Department nearly dumped the resolution, aimed at getting aid for Iraq and charting a vague course to independence, fearing it would fail or just scrape by with nine votes, a political failure on a crucial issue.
In the end, all 15 council members voted "yes" although no one offered new troops and pledges of aid were modest.
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| 'It was clear they wanted an outcome they could support' |
France, Germany and Russia vowed to abstain as a bloc if their package of amendments was adopted in its entirety.
"We were looking for more than passage. We were looking for a solid statement from the entire international community and all of the members of the Security Council if possible," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said after the vote.
Powell said it took the government just 48 hours to clinch a unanimous vote, with the most intensive lobbying taking place in the final 24 hours before the vote.
The first signal came from China, which usually sides with Russia and was looking for a way out, US officials said.
Russia then began to probe for a possible compromise. Its UN ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, offered a shorter and less controversial list of amendments, which was accepted by US Ambassador John Negroponte in a private meeting on Wednesday.
"It was clear they wanted an outcome they could support," a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our sense was the Russians wanted an agreement."
French and German envoys said they were aware of the Lavrov meeting in advance but had not come to a decision themselves.
By Wednesday evening, State Department officials were sure Russian President Vladimir Putin was on board and believed that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was leaning in favour but would not vote "yes" unless France did so too.
"He knew when the train is leaving the station. You either get on it or you watch it go by," said one council diplomat.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said there were 12 certain votes on Wednesday, indicating Syria, France and Germany were still holding out.
Straw described Wednesday as "a long day of negotiations beginning with a long conversation with my colleague, Minister Li (Zhaoxing) of China and culminating in the small hours of this morning in the final conversation of many with Secretary Powell."
The vote, originally called for Wednesday, was delayed until Thursday after Russia said it had to wait until Putin, Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac consulted in a telephone conference early on Thursday morning.
Diplomats speculated that Putin and then Schroeder put pressure on Chirac to agree to a "yes" vote at those talks.
The final hold-out was Syria, which recently has had little reason to support the United States.
The Bush administration is pressuring Syria to crack down on militant groups it says are using Syrian territory to launch suicide bombings in Israel. And the US Congress is working on legislation that would cut off trade with Damascus.
But US officials said Damascus had apparently done its calculations and concluded it was better to be on the winning side. Other diplomats said France persuaded it to come along.
"We got word during the night that they were reflecting on their position," Powell said. "This morning we were advised that they would be joining the other 14 members."
"I am pleased that they decided that they did not want to be left out of the consensus," he said.
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