The Secretary of State has scored an impressive victory over the hardliners by persuading the Bush administration to go the UN route on Iraq, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
When US President Mr George Bush appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday to hail the United Nations resolution on Iraq, his chief diplomat, Mr Colin Powell, stood beaming beside him.
With the surprise 15-0 vote at the Security Council, the US Secretary of State had been vindicated as the supreme architect of Washington's foreign policy. It wasn't so long ago that Mr Powell seemed close to resigning, as administration hardliners forced the pace on issues from the Middle East to the UN.
The turning point came on August 5th when, by one account, Mr Powell had a private dinner with Mr Bush and national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice in the White House. The President, encouraged by conservatives in the administration, had been talking about by-passing the United Nations and taking unilateral action against Iraq.
Mr Powell argued that Americans needed to go through the UN to get a tough new round of weapons inspections. If they succeeded, it would still achieve Washington's aim because President Saddam Hussein would almost certainly not comply; if they failed, Mr Bush would get credit for trying.
Two weeks later, Mr Powell presented his arguments in the White House situation room to the Vice-President, Mr Dick Cheney, and Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, both sceptical about the UN, with Mr Bush watching by video from his ranch in Texas. By the time he had finished, Mr Powell had their support for pragmatism over unilateralism.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, the President's closest foreign ally, had also urged the US to get international support for possible war. There was still resistance to the idea of trying for consensus at the UN, which Mr Bush was due to address on September 12th.
In an early draft of his speech, Mr Cheney's staff and Mr Rumsfeld's deputy, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, had the President informing the UN that the US already had legal authority for an attack on Iraq, as Baghdad was in material breach of earlier resolutions.
Despite Mr Bush's own preference for a pre-emptive stragegy - outlined in his "doctrine" in September - Mr Powell's argument that his speech should call for a tough new resolution on disarmament prevailed.
The first draft of the US resolution was, however, "dead-on-arrival" in the United Nations, as it contained several words and clauses, many inserted by the Pentagon with Mr Bush's approval, that would allow instant war. Mr Powell, helped by the UK Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, with whom he spoke by telephone several times a day, began chipping at the text.
Three weeks ago, Mr Bush agreed to drop the unacceptable phrase "all necessary means" of enforcement, words that would allow a US invasion at any time. He also agreed to a two-stage resolution to meet French and Russian concerns.
Another turning point came when Mr Powell persuaded the President to invite the chief weapons inspector - portrayed by the Pentagon as a pushover for Mr Saddam - to brief him at the White House, according to officials quoted in the US media. Mr Bush, and just as importantly, Ms Rice and Mr Wolfowitz, were impressed by the evident desire of Dr Hans Blix not to be deceived as before by the Iraqis.
Ms Rice dropped her insistence that US troops accompany the inspectors.
In the final days, Mr Powell and the French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, talked regularly. Mr Powell knew that if the French signed on, so too would countries such as Ireland, Mauritius, Cameroon and Mexico, which were more sympathetic to the French view. He wanted to be sure the resolution could be presented as one for disarmament, not war.
Mr Powell responded to French courtship of non-permanent members of the Security Council by embarking on a round of interviews with journalists from member countries presenting the US bottom line.
Washington would not be "handcuffed" by the resolution but the Security Council could have another debate before any war. Mr Powell was still talking to Mr Villepin 10 minutes before walking down the aisle to give his daughter away at her wedding on November 1st.
By last Thursday evening, all 15 Security Council members had signed on to the resolution, except Russia and Syria. Mr Powell talked to the Russians several times more and sent a message to the Syrian President that Damascus would be isolated at the UN on a resolution that would not necessarily mean an invasion of Iraq. An hour before the vote, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, called to say he would vote in favour. Minutes before the time for voting, the US ambassador to the UN, Mr John Negroponte, rang Mr Powell on his mobile phone to say the Syrians had called and would vote yes. It was a "slam-dunk" for Mr Powell, as one diplomat said.
But inside the US administration his success at the UN could in time be used against him by his critics. If the Iraqis co-operate and the inspectors find nothing, the hardliners will be thwarted in their desire for regime change in Iraq, according to comments by administration officials.
For now they are quiescent, and for the first time since President Bush took office, the United Nations is in good standing in Washington.