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| Iraq-Jordan |
| UN discovers Iraq extends beyond Green Zone |
| 2004-12-16 |
| UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations is expanding its presence in Iraq outside Baghdad to the cities of Basra and Irbil but is planning to have only about 25 electoral experts in the entire country ahead of elections next month, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday. The announcement came on the eve of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's meeting in Washington with outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and his successor, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The two U.S. officials and the Iraqi government have been pressing the United Nations to expand its electoral team and its presence in the country for the scheduled Jan. 30 vote. There are about 20 U.N. electoral staff in Iraq and U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said "the number of electoral personnel that we hope to get up to remains something like 25." While deploying just 25 U.N. election experts is unlikely to satisfy the Iraqis or Americans, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said Wednesday the expansion was positive. He expressed hope the United Nations would put personnel in northern and southern Iraq. "The more the better is basically our position, so I don't know when there would ever be a number when we would say 'that's enough,'" he told reporters after a private meeting with Annan. "But we certainly think this is moving in the right direction." Eckhard said that Annan "intends to proceed with further expansion" of the U.N. mission in Iraq and that a first step was sending security experts to the Shiite-dominated southern city of Basra and the mainly Kurdish northern city of Irbil. They will assess security conditions in order to establish U.N. offices "as soon as practicable," he said. ... |
| Posted by:.com |
| #1 The UN in Iraq... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-16 9:34:11 PM |
