| Submit your comments on this article |
| International |
| Annan takes temperature of Europeans on Iraq |
| 2003-04-15 |
| ATHENS, April 15 (Reuters) - Despite U.S. efforts to sideline the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan came to the Greek capital on Tuesday to find common ground on postwar Iraq among major powers at a summit of divided European nations. Annan will seek agreement from the leaders of France, Germany and Britain, as well as Russia's foreign minister, on a political role for the United Nations in Iraq, although no major decisions are expected. "I look forward to discussing the post-conflict Iraq situation with key leaders in Athens and for us to try and find a way to move forward and to bring the U.N. Security Council together," Annan told Reuters en route to Greece. In Athens, heads of the 15 European Union members will watch 10 mostly former communist nations sign accession treaties this week to join the EU in 2004 at a ceremony at the foot of the Acropolis. World leaders from Germany to Pakistan have called for the United Nations, not the Pentagon, to play a central role in trying to organise a new Iraqi government, they say, will give the country's new leaders greater independence and legitimacy. "I do expect the United Nations to play an important role. Above all the U.N. involvement does bring legitimacy, which is necessary for the country, for the region and for the peoples around the world," Annan said. But so far the Bush administration harbors deep resentment over the 15-member Security Council's failure to approve a resolution authorising war and sees a U.N. role limited to humanitarian aid. At best, it would accept a special representative joining some talks but has shied away from the Afghanistan formula, where the United Nations steered the process of selecting an interim government and helped administer the country afterwards. U.S. officials invited Annan's special adviser, Rafeeuddin Ahmed, to Washington on Monday and Annan agreed to send him despite objections from Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, who said several times that Ahmed did not have a mandate to negotiate with the occupiers. Ahmed chaired a group that drew up plans this year for the United Nations to step in about three months after the end of the fighting to help to forge an interim administration. But the contingency plans reject a full scale-U.N. takeover as in Kosovo or in East Timor as well as any security role. While the United States and the United Nations are circling each other with vague comments, Annan and the Security Council are doing the same. Annan has not publicly presented a plan to council members, who only recently began private discussions on post-war Iraq, at the instigation of Mexico, the current president. "The Security Council has begun quietly and informally to discuss the detail of what needs to be done," Britain's U.N. Ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said. "But there are still clearly sensitivities in a number of areas and all of us know we will have to move carefully on this." There are some council members and even U.N. officials who feel the United States will have to come to the world body -- at minimum to lift sanctions on oil sales, which would involve a clean bill of health by U.N. weapons inspectors. And Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the U.N., said the world body's leadership was wary about being expected to play too large a role without having the resources to do so. "I work for people, including the secretary general, who have seen the United States time after time commit to a long-term involvement in a country -- Haiti, the Balkans, Somalia -- and is gone as soon as the next crisis comes along," he said. There is a big 'C' caution about jumping in and saying we will do the reconstruction." |
| Posted by:Tadderly |
| #9 Ray -- "grandeur" may have started out as French, but it's ours now. Just like the Statue of Liberty and just like the ethnicity of a bunch of pissed-off Americans. What we got from them, we built on and made it ours, just like we did from every other country. We deserve that word, the blood of French Americans, and the Statue. Too bad the French don't remember freedom anymore. |
| Posted by: Shana 2003-04-16 14:18:53 |
| #8 What is it with these guys and their delusions of grandeur? (Oops, is "grandeur French??? My bad!) The UN doesn't "bring legitimacy" at all. A nation is determined de-facto, by declaring itself such, and by its actions. Or do they think that declaring, oh, saym Cuba, Red China, North Korea to be "not legitimate" will make any difference in the real world? And "remiving sanctions"??!!??!! It is to laugh. All that is needed is for Bush to say that the sanctions are over, and they WILL, de-facto, be over. Regardless of what the UN says or doesn't say. Geesh. |
| Posted by: ray 2003-04-15 20:33:13 |
| #7 Kofi's Paradim: Let me run Iraq and I promise to ask for your money to make it happen! |
| Posted by: john 2003-04-15 20:04:45 |
| #6 Yes, Paul, but "I'll be a dentist!" is much more melodic than "I'll be a proctologist!" I'm thinking more along the lines of "Pulp Fiction", where Chiraq is the gimp! |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-04-15 15:23:44 |
| #5 Dar---MOART sounds like an instrument from the Little Shop of Horrors. Uhhhhhh.... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-04-15 13:58:26 |
| #4 When Kofi takes France's temperature, I hope he uses the Mother of All Rectal Thermometers(TM). |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-04-15 12:25:19 |
| #3 LOL Kofi, those former Communist nations know what a powerless lackey the UN is. They used it, they're gonna trust it now? |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-04-15 12:19:26 |
| #2 Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the U.N., said the world body's leadership was wary about being expected to play too large a role without having the resources to do so Let me see...the UN has to take the lead, and we'll be expected to provide the resources for jerks like Mark Brown to screw us over? I don't think so |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-15 11:48:25 |
| #1 Germany's temp (reuters) "Gernot Erler, a senior member of Schroeder's Social Democrats in parliament, was more robust when commenting on speculation that Germany will be asked to help fund Iraq's rebuilding: "If we pay for reconstruction, German companies must get business deals." Defense Minister Peter Struck agreed, saying "It would be absurd to demand Europe help finance reconstruction, then insist that certain European countries are not given contracts." |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-04-15 11:39:25 |