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Iraq
U.N. Chief Backs New Iraqi Council
2003-07-21
BAGHDAD, July 20 -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has given a report to members of the U.N. Security Council urging them to endorse the new Governing Council created by the U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq, calling it "a broadly representative partner with whom the United Nations and the international community at large can engage."
Okay, which Rantburger performed the spine transplant operation on Kofi?
Annan’s recommendation, which was delivered to Security Council members Friday but is not to be released to the public until Monday, is an important show of support for the Governing Council, a 25-member body whose members were selected by the occupation authority to assume responsibility for numerous day-to-day tasks.

Some A few A very few Many Iraqis, including an estimated 10,000 people who turned out to protest in the city of Najaf today, have dismissed the council’s members as puppets of the United States, and some of Iraq’s neighbors have been equally skeptical. But Annan’s recommendation could help to garner Security Council approval of the new Iraqi body, a key step in building international legitimacy and recruiting much-needed foreign aid. The Security Council is scheduled to hear a report Tuesday from Annan’s special representative in Iraq, Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, and is likely to decide shortly after that whether to support the Governing Council.

Annan’s report to the Security Council asks the body to consider the Governing Council equivalent to an interim government, called for in a recent Security Council resolution. "This is the interim Iraqi authority that Resolution 1483 urged," Fawzi said. If the Security Council endorses the Governing Council, he said it would "clear the way" for foreign governments to start donating funds for Iraq’s reconstruction. Many countries have been reluctant to give directly to the occupation authority and have insisted on dealing with a U.N.-approved transitional government. A U.N. endorsement also would give the Iraqi council "more authority and independence," Vieira de Mello said in a recent interview. "It would take away the stigma of being puppets of the Americans," he said.
Funny how most Iraqis don’t have a problem with us.
Despite Annan’s backing, it is not certain that the Security Council will give the Governing Council an enthusiastic endorsement. Diplomats representing some nations on the Security Council, which passed a resolution in May allowing the United States and Britain to administer Iraq until it has a permanent government, have questioned whether the Governing Council will have sufficient power and enough independence from the U.S.-led occupation authority, which selected the members and will retain veto power over the council’s decisions.
That’s why it’s an interim council.
Annan’s report echoes several arguments in support of the Governing Council made by U.S. officials, including the top U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. A copy of Annan’s report was provided to a reporter.

In an effort to win over Security Council members, the Governing Council dispatched a three-person delegation to New York that included Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi and Akila Hashimi, a woman who had served as an Iraqi diplomat under Saddam Hussein’s government, members of the council said. Although Chalabi had pulled out of the trip late last week, U.N. officials said that he changed his mind over the weekend and agreed to join the delegation.

The Governing Council has been criticized by a few many Iraqis, foremost among them Moqtada Sadr, an influential Shiite Muslim cleric in Najaf, a center of religious scholarship 90 miles south of Baghdad. Thousands of Sadr’s followers marched for six miles to the U.S. government compound in Najaf, shouting slogans against the Governing Council and the Americans. "Long live Sadr. America and the Council are infidels," the protesters chanted, according to an Associated Press report. "Moqtada, go ahead. We are your soldiers of liberation."
Sure, boys. Whatever. By the way, did you talk with your cousins, the ones who were in the Iraqi army and who saw what an American mechanized infantry battalion can do? No? You might try asking.
Annan’s report also urges the United States and Britain to "set out a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of military occupation," and a "clear timetable leafing to the full restoration of sovereignty."
We’ll leave when the job’s done. How’s that?
Posted by:Steve White

#8  OMG we have must done something wrong! Next France will be offering to surrender to police Iraq! Quick someone call The President and get those troops home!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter)   2003-7-21 10:57:42 PM  

#7  Kathy K - Just read your linked story....

"In Toughly Worded Iraq Report, U.N. Chief Kofi Annan Urges U.S. to Return Iraq to Self-Rule" (ABC News Spin is still running heavy)

"There is an overwhelming demand for self-rule and democracy cannot be imposed from the outside."

Lessee, does Kofi have a single clue what he's talking about? Does his resume include bringing democracy to a bunch of factionalized goatherders, most of whom long for a return to the 7th century? Has he ever faced anything like this - anything at all?

Didn't think so.

This is one more nail in the UN coffin, IMHO. Not a clue in the whole lot.
Posted by: PD   2003-7-21 10:12:03 PM  

#6  Kathy K - that link problem happened to me, as well, on a story I posted yesterday - but I was stupid and didn't notice it had happened. Good catch!
Posted by: PD   2003-7-21 9:49:04 PM  

#5  Think again...

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030721_1614.html
There's the catch.

Sorry about the bare link, but your preview kept giving me a "http://rantburg.com/http://... on a perfectly good link...
Posted by: Kathy K   2003-7-21 8:21:00 PM  

#4  Hodadenon - This is a real crisis: the Phrench are against it and Kofi's (sorta) for it - whatever shall we do? Our tried and true gut-check to be on the opposite side is inconclusive!

Without the list of proviso's, I'd say Kofi's head just came out of his ass... but there they are: "must" specify a timetable, major role for nay-sayers, legitimacy, moral authority, American Puppets - the whole BS litany from a crowd that hasn't the sense to skate to where the puck's gonna be, instead of where it is now. Same old shit. Fuck the UN. Oh, I almost forgot, Fuck Turkey, too.
Posted by: PD   2003-7-21 7:33:26 PM  

#3  "U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has given a report to members of the U.N. Security Council urging them to endorse the new Governing Council created by the U.S"

O.K. Where did we fuck up? Did we appoint former employees of the Iraqui mission to the UN to this council? Are they all Sadaam in-laws? Has to be a major screw up for this type of endorsement.
Posted by: Hodadenon   2003-7-21 1:19:41 PM  

#2  Yay for Kofi Annan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(sorry, i couldnt resist)

seriously, the next step is another UNSC res explicitly accepting the governing council as interim authority and encouraging nations to donate troops and money. France will probably still lobby against that, but will Germany, eager for reconciliation, stand with France after Kofi's statement??? I cant see it. And with Germany gone can France and Russia stop this from going forward? More interesting times ahead, but this seems like the best news in a couple of weeks.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-7-21 11:13:11 AM  

#1  I confess I did it.Used a cadaver transplant from the Cowardly Lion(late of the Wizard of Oz)
Posted by: raptor   2003-7-21 7:33:35 AM  

00:00