Russia vows not to block renewal of U.N. mandate

Russia vows not to block renewal of U.N. mandate
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, October 24, 2008

The Russian foreign minister said this week that his country would not block the renewal of a U.N. mandate allowing U.S. and foreign troops to stay in Iraq beyond the end of the year.

Negotiations over a Status of Forces Agreement are dragging on, stuck by what Iraqi and American officials say are disagreements over "immunity" from prosecution in Iraqi courts for U.S. troops and a definite date for final withdrawal of all U.S. forces.

According to Russian news agencies, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said that, "We’ll support Iraq’s request to the U.N. Security Council if the Iraqi government asks for the mandate of the current international military presence to be extended."

Russia, as a permanent Security Council member, could have vetoed any such request. Some analysts had speculated Russia could take such an action to express its displeasure with U.S. policy in other parts of the world, particularly Georgia and Kosovo.

But Lavrov told reporters that Russia negatively viewed an immediate pullout of foreign forces from Iraq.


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