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U.S., UK not expected to attend U.N. meeting on Iraq
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw don't plan to attend a Wednesday meeting of foreign ministers representing U.N. Security Council members to discuss future weapons inspections in Iraq. At least seven foreign ministers, including those who do not currently support a U.S.-led war on Iraq -- France's Dominique de Villepin, Germany's Joschka Fischer and Russia's Igor Ivanov -- plan to attend the meeting scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Powell said he has no plans to attend, and neither does Straw, a British official said. The council ministers are expected to hear from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix on his 83-page work program that was distributed to council members Monday. Diplomats said the ministers would also discuss humanitarian issues in Iraq. Some U.N. officials have expressed concern about the future of the 7-year-old U.N.'s oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to use oil revenues from a U.N. escrow account to purchase humanitarian goods. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he is now focusing on how the United Nations can help the Iraqi people once a war begins. Annan is preparing a "substantive letter" expected to be delivered to the Security Council late Tuesday, according to his spokesman Fred Eckhard. The letter would identify how existing U.N. programs can be reconfigured to serve humanitarian needs. Chief among these programs would be the oil-for-food program -- which was temporarily suspended after U.N. inspectors were ordered to leave Iraq Monday. Elements of this letter could serve as a basis for any upcoming resolution by the Security Council on U.N. humanitarian aid for Iraq in the event and aftermath of war. Security Council diplomats say the United States and the Britain are drafting a resolution -- to be presented "a few days into the war" -- to convert the oil-for-food account into a fund for humanitarian and reconstruction purposes. Diplomats say Annan's letter would trigger the need for a new resolution, and help lay the political groundwork for any U.S. or British initiative on Iraq. The resolution would keep Iraqi oil under the control of the Iraqi people, one diplomat said, but it would put the United Nations in control of Iraqi oil sales and the distribution of humanitarian goods. Eckhard and other U.N. officials said until hostilities ended it would be up to the United States to take the lead on any humanitarian assistance. "Under international humanitarian law," Eckhard said, "the occupying power would have responsibility for providing assistance to the affected population. And so that's what we are assuming would be the case should there be military action. "We would then expect to move to a second phase once the environment was safe enough for civilians to go in and help with humanitarian relief for U.N. agencies, their NGO [non-governmental organization] partners and whoever else is qualified and willing to bring assistance, to get to work." To date under the oil-for-food program, the U.N. says roughly $27 billion worth of humanitarian supplies and equipment have been delivered to Iraq and roughly $10 billion worth of supplies are in the "production and delivery pipeline." Against the backdrop of impending military action, U.N. diplomats considered their options. Diplomats told CNN that as soon as the U.S. coalition attacks Iraq, Baghdad will call for an immediate Security Council meeting via their ally on the council, Syria. Although Iraq would like a resolution to condemn the attack, the feeling among diplomats now is to stay away from immediate confrontation with the United States, to give everyone a calming down period. Diplomats also said that members of the U.N.'s non-aligned nations -- underdeveloped countries that make up more than two-thirds of the U.N. -- had discussed calling an emergency session of the General Assembly under the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, which was passed in 1950 at the start of the Korean war. The "Uniting for Peace" resolution has been invoked in situations where the Security Council has failed to act to defuse a crisis, a U.N. spokesman said. But a U.N. spokesman said no session had yet been scheduled. CNN Producers Ronni Berke and Liz Neisloss contributed to this report.
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