UN: By A twist of irony, Iraq is to assume the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations on March 17th, a date by which many observers believe a US-led coalition could be taking military action to disarm Iraq.
Iraq was due to take its turn at the head of the 66-nation commission in May on the basis of alphabetical rotation, but the date was brought forward after Iran dropped out. It will now succeed Indonesia on March 17th, a UN spokesman said. Ireland will take over in turn after Iraq's four-week spell ends.
The "I's present some challenges," a UN official said, pointing out that Israel, which will come after Ireland, is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.
Israel is believed to have scores of nuclear warheads and Iraq has used the commission to accuse Israel of stockpiling biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
The Conference on Disarmament is the formal negotiating body for international disarmament and arms control treaties. It negotiated the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, which was signed in 1996.
UN spokesman Mr Fred Eckhard said yesterday the choice of conference leaders was "a purely automatic rotation by alphabetical order", with five or six conference presidents a year, each serving a term of about four weeks.
At a time when Washington is challenging the world body's credibility, criticism of the UN by the Bush administration has sharply increased over Iraq's role in the disarmament body.
The recent election of Libya to head the UN human rights commission has been described by the US National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, as "laughable" and she warned that "the UN had best pay attention to its own credibility".
The UN's 53-member UN Commission on Human Rights elected the Libyan ambassador, Ms Najat Al-Hajjaji to chair the commission's 59th session in a secret ballot on January 20th. Ireland did not oppose the nomination but has not said if it voted for Ms Al-Hajjaji or abstained, as it was a secret ballot. The result was 33 in favour, three opposed and 17 abstentions.
The United States and Canada announced they had voted against, along with Guatemala.
Ms Al-Hajjaji was the choice of the African group whose turn it was to take the chair and was nominated by group co-ordinator South Africa. She is well regarded as a diplomat, according to UN sources. The vice-chairs are from Sri Lanka, Peru and Australia.
The election was forced by the United States to show its objections to Libya, which has a record of suppressing human rights. European countries on the commission are understood to have abstained.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, succeeded Mrs Mary Robinson who did not run for a new term because of US opposition.
Ms Al-Hajjaji, in accepting the post, said women played a major role in life and government in Libya and that the country took its inspiration from the principles of the United Nations.
She said the commission must send a message that it would deal with the human rights of all countries, not just some of them, and that it would take account in its activities of the world's many different religions, cultural and historical backgrounds.
After the vote, US diplomat Mr Kevin Moley expressed deep disappointment over Libya's election and said the US had asked for a vote to leave no doubt about its objection to Libya.