UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Monday formally recognized the end of the mandate of the US-led multinational forces (MNF) in Iraq at the end of this month as requested by the Baghdad government.
The UN mandate is expiring after the United States, which supplies 95 percent of foreign troops in Iraq, recently signed an agreement with the Baghdad government which allows its combat forces to remain in the country until the end of 2011.
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a US-British resolution that recognizes "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 is 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 also have 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 rendewred during their presence in the territory, waters and airspace of Iraq."
"This termination marks a turning point for Iraq and the end od 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.
Resolution 1859 also decided to extend until December 31, 2009 the arrangements for "the depositing into the Development Fund for Iraq of proceeds from export sales of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas ... and the arrangements for the monitoring of the Fund by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
