USA: Baghdad pushes for wider U.N. role in Iraq

Iraq urges regional and world powers to back an expanded U.N. role in Iraq but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says there is more to be done on security before he can increase U.N. staff. At a high level U.N. meeting on Iraq on Saturday (September 22), Iraq called for international backing for an expanded U.N. role in the country, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon emphasised that the security situation needed to improve vastly before U.N. staff could be increased. Ministers from Iraq, its neighbours and world powers met at U.N. headquarters, with Washington pressing for implementation of a Security Council resolution passed last month on raising the role of the world body in Iraq. Ban said it was the duty and responsibility of the United Nations to help and he proposed setting up a small support office in Baghdad and possibly sending staff to the cities of Basra and Arbil in the future. But when he was asked at a news conference whether security was sufficiently improved to actually commit more U.N. staff, Ban said that the security situation in Iraq was unstable and that it needed to be ensured soon. "The security is still unstable and I would really hope that the security would be ensured as soon as possible. It's true that with the contributions and sacrifice of many multinational forces and Iraqi government, security has been improving but I think much more has to be done," said Ban. Many U.N. officials are deeply concerned about working in Iraq after a bomb exploded at the U.N. office in Baghdad in August 2003 and killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello. The U.N. Staff Union wants Ban not to deploy more people in Iraq and withdraw those that are there now. Around 50 staff are currently in Baghdad, living and working in the fortified international Green Zone. At U.S. and British urging, the Security Council last month voted to assign the United Nations an expanded political role in Iraq, including promoting reconciliation between rival factions and dialogue with neighbouring countries. Maliki said his government was making progress toward national reconciliation and played down defections by Sunni Arab political parties from his government. "When we talk of improvement, this doesn't mean that we don't have some problems but these problems are very small," he said. Rice described the talks as an "excellent meeting" but also referred to the unstable security situation in Iraq. "I think that the security situation in Iraq is difficult but improving and certainly the security of U.N. personnel will be a very high priority for all the forces there, the multinational forces," Rice told reporters as she was leaving the meeting. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner too expressed concern over the security situation in Iraq. "A lot of ministers are willing to help and do something but the security conditions are very low. So, will it be possible to start in the north and go down with some project etc., it was part of the problem," said Kouchner. U.S. President George W. Bush boosted American troop levels this year to try to stabilize Baghdad and create a climate for political reconciliation between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni populations. But the Iraqi government has failed to meet several benchmarks for political reconciliation. Bush recently backed a recommendation by his commander in Iraq to withdraw 20,000 troops by next July from 169,000 now. The meeting was a rare occasion for Rice to sit in the same room as officials from Iran, but a U.S. official said there was no direct contact between Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

ITN Source | September 23, 2007

Tags:. .troops. .promoting. .foreign. .certainly. .pushes