IRNA -- The United Nations will make efforts to restore the pride of the Iraqi people and assist them in deciding their own future and restore their control over their natural resources especially oil and natural gas, said Feodor Starcevic, director of the UN Information Center in New Delhi on Thursday. Starcevic, while inaugurating the seminar entitled "Role of UN in Iraq crisis" held that sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq were the prime concerns of the U.N. Starcevic said the UN has tended to preserve its moral authority and credibility in troubled times and herein lies the strength of this organization.
| Some of us believe the UN has foreited its moral authority and its credibility in the run-up to the Iraq war. And if it wasn't gone then, it's evaporated in the morass of the Oil for Palace program and its apparent willful mismanagement of Iraq's funds. |
C. R. Gharekhan, former permanent representative of India to U.N. and former Undersecretary General to the U.N. said, U.N. failed diplomatically in the Iraq war as there was a resolve on part of the US to change the reality in the Middle East. So the issue that came tothe U.N. was politically non-issue. Criticizing the unilateral policy of US, he questioned the nature of the threats to the international peace and security. Is there a place in U.N. for regime change when there is already the talk of failed states, axis of evils and rogue states? Should there be a case made for benign interference? Doctrines and principles change and institutions evolve overtime, limits of sovereignty in globalised world is something international theory has to come to terms with. The present structure of the U.N. is not reflective of the political reality in the world, he said, adding therefore there is talk of expansion and reform of Security Council and General Assembly for greater voice of public opinion and more presence of developing world in the body.
| Abolition would be a pretty basic-level reform, wouldn't it? |
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