U.S. Finds Annan Ready to Help Salvage Iraq Transition Plan

[kskiska]

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is prepared to try to help the United States salvage its Iraq strategy, despite more than a year of rancorous relations over the country, largely due to his deep concern about the potential for a political implosion in Iraq, according to senior U.S. and U.N. officials.

But Annan, who is also wary of U.S. motives, intends to ask some tough and specific questions in talks with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. governor of Iraq, and the Iraqi Governing Council at their meeting today in New York, U.N. officials say. The key is how much authority the United States is willing to cede on policy, a critical issue because the United Nations does not want to be used simply to give credibility to the troubled U.S. plan to hand over power to Iraq by June 30.

Annan has set three other conditions for the United Nations to return to Iraq: complete clarity on the scope of the U.N. role, security guarantees, and assurances that the substance of the U.N. role would justify the risks.

(snip)

Annan's top advisers differ over the wisdom of returning to Iraq under U.S. military occupation. "Some people think this is a trap," a U.N. official said. Others think "this is the perfect time for the U.N. to demonstrate to everybody that it has a role to play and can be useful," the official said. "They don't believe that the impasse is impossible to solve."

(snip)

Some critics on the U.N. Security Council also suggest that U.S. efforts to lure the United Nations back to Iraq are motivated by the need to share the risks in a presidential election year. "They need to find a scapegoat to take the blame in case this fails," an envoy from one of the 15 member countries said.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28147-2004Jan18.html

[Mikimouse]

1. Flame if you must, but I think the UN

should stay the hell as far away from this mess as they can. I do think it is a trap, and further, an opportunity for * to say something like "see, they couldn't handle the situation either, so they were really irrlevant after all". I don't buy this at all, and I think that Kofi Annan had better make very sure of exactly what he is getting into if he agrees to get re-involved. All existing contracts should be renegotiated, a full accounting of all American contracts fown to the letter should be revealed, and elections designed in a way compatible with the wishes of the Iraqis.

[Eloriel]

2. Oh, God

He's not ready to trust a damn thing any of them says, is he? I sure as hell hope not.

[acmavm]

3. I think Annan will take the bait purely from a humanitarian point of view.

The Bush* administration has screwed this up so badly that I think he will feel obligated to try to bring some kind of peace and stability to the country. But all I can say is that he'd better watch out, everyone who deals with these thugs eventually gets burned, Tony Blair is an example.

Commendable insisting on assurances, but stupid to believe them. The American public was assured that Saddam had WMDs. We all know how that played out. And as for security, I wonder how that's supposed to work? The Iraqi resistance doesn't want us there, period. We can't provide any kind of security now, let alone guarantee the security of UN personnel.

And then there's the question of the oil fields. How does Bush* & Co. work it so that they get to keep them? Somehow I have a feeling that the Iraqis will insist that they have control over the only real asset that they have.

All I can say is good luck Mr. Annan. You are making a deal with the devil, so to speak. Hope you have a flame retardant suit.

[Fovea]

4. According to former President Reagan

there is an old Russian proverb--

"Trust, but Verify."

But really, if we just listen to what the * admin has said
about the U.N. so far, I would council patience on the part of the
UN, until after the 2004 elections to see what might then be possible.