UN Security Council Approves Resolution in Support of new Iraq

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to endorse the new Iraqi interim government and grant it "full sovereignty" (Boston Globe: here). The resolution lays out what powers and what restrictions the interim government will have after the transfer on June 30th. The resolution gives the government control over Iraqi security forces and allows the government to have a say in "sensitive operations" performed by US and coalition troops. Critics of the war, France and Germany, lent many ideas to the new resolution. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, has endorsed the resolution while the Kurdish minority in the north of Iraq has voiced extreme opposition to the resolution and is threatening to withdraw from the interim government and possibly secede, raising fears of a possible civil war or a conflict with Turkey (Christian Science Monitor: here).