Just back from a trip to the Middle East, Sen. Jack Reed says the U.N. must approve a security resolution to create an interim government Iraqis can accept.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 20, 2004

BY SCOTT MacKAY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The United Nations must be brought into the process of establishing a new government in Iraq because Iraqi citizens may not see a U.S.-sponsored government as legitimate, Sen. Jack Reed said yesterday.

Speaking on the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, Reed said Americans should expect more violence and terror attacks in the war-ravaged country.

Reed, one of a group of Democratic senators who just returned from a trip to Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, reiterated his stance that the Bush administration made a mistake in not getting the United Nations sufficiently involved in rebuilding Iraq.

Without U.N. support, Iraq could descend into a civil war after the June 30 deadline for turning over governing to Iraq authorities, Reed said. "Iraq is an extraordinarily dangerous place" that is being terrorized by "an incredibly ruthless group of terrorists," he said.

"As yet there is no real structure to this government" that is set to take over in Iraq, Reed said. "The July 1 date is arbitrary. . . . The day was picked purely out of the air.

"I don't think the security situation is going to be any better two or three months from now," he said.

Yet Reed said it would probably not be feasible to extend the deadline for turnover of governmental functions to Iraqis. "This date has taken hold in the minds of the Iraqi people," he said.

The biggest problem, Reed said, is that so far, there has not been adequate training for Iraqi security forces such as civil defense and police.

Reed's comments came in a news conference and in an interview after with the Journal.

The role of the United Nations could be in handling social issues and economic development, while the U.S. military continues to train local soldiers to police the country.

While Reed has been a consistent critic of President Bush's Iraq policies, he emphasized that the United States cannot withdraw its troops. "We need to stay the course . . . and we must be very candid with the American people.

"Having come this far, we have to finish the mission," he said.

Reed and four other members of a Senate delegation were in Baghdad shortly before a recent hotel bombing, which killed seven people. Reed and Democratic Sens. Nelson Rockefeller of West Virginia, Carl Levin of Michigan, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, were flying from Iraq to Jordan when they heard about the attack, Reed said.

Reed visited Rhode Island troops while in Iraq. It was his third visit to the country since the war began a year ago.

The United States must involve the Sunni population, Reed said, in building a new government, or violence could increase, even plunging Iraq into a civil war.

Reed said it was the consensus of the Democratic senators that the United Nations should approve a new security resolution so that a new Iraqi interim government is not seen as a continuation of U.S. domination.

One troubling event, Reed said, occurred when the senators visited L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq.

Bremer was asked by the senators what the new government would look like, Reed said.

"He said, 'I don't know, we're working on it,' " Reed said.