Even as the Security Council Hems and Haws, The UN draws Up Plans For a Post-War Iraq

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US forces will hand over three months after Saddam is defeated

THE United Nations has drawn up a confidential plan to establish a post-Saddam government in Iraq in a move that suggests its leaders now consider war all but inevitable.
The plan, obtained by The Times, has been produced in great secrecy over the past month, even though Security Council approval of a ?war resolution? hangs in the balance.

The UN is breaking a taboo, and arguably breaching its charter, by considering plans for Iraq?s future governance while it deals daily with President Saddam Hussein?s regime as a legitimate member.

The 60-page plan was ordered by Louise Frechette, the Canadian deputy of Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General, and was drawn up at the UN?s New York headquarters by a six-member pre-planning group. It envisages the UN stepping in about three months after a successful conquest of Iraq, and steering the country towards self-government, as in Afghanistan.

The plan resists British pressure to set up a full-scale UN administration. It also says that the UN should avoid taking direct control of Iraqi oil or becoming involved in vetting Iraqi officials for links to the President or staging elections under US military occupation.

It proposes instead the creation of a UN Assistance Mission in Iraq, to be known as Unami, to help to establish a new government.

UN sources expected the plan to be implemented even if the US goes to war without a UN resolution authorising military action. It recommends that the UN immediately appoint a senior official to co-ordinate its strategy, who would become the UN special representative in post-war Iraq.