The Iraqi diplomat, Ismat Kittani, who died on October 23rd aged 72, acquired the unfathomable secret of portraying an acceptable side of Saddam Hussein's regime, while, during many years of service to the United Nations, succeeding in personally retaining the confidence of the international community.
As his country's representative, he was president of the UN General Assembly during its 1981-'82 session, after Iraq had invaded Iran and the first allegations of Iraq's use of poison gas had surfaced.
As an international civil servant, he was used in a variety of sensitive roles by five UN secretaries-general, beginning with U Thant and continuing - in a minor capacity - into the Kofi Annan era. Throughout his career, he focused his energies on multinational diplomacy.
In the 1980s, as Iraq's ambassador to the UN, it fell to Ismat Kittani to offer a staunch defence of his country's actions in the war with Iran. Even though he was a Kurd from poor peasant stock, he also spoke up in defence of his government after Saddam's use of poison gas against Kurdish villages in Iraq.
During four decades, beginning in 1957 as a junior member of Iraq's UN mission, Ismat Kittani made himself a familiar figure among delegates and the secretariat. Intelligent and open to compromise, his colleagues appreciated him - even when they disagreed with him. After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, however, Britain and the US began to have reservations about Boutros Boutros-Ghali's fondness for him and his frequent use of the Iraqi on special missions.Yet, without exception, the secretaries-general who employed Ismat Kittani appreciated his discretion and judgment.
Born in Emadieh, in western Iraq, Ismat Kittani won a scholarship to Knox College, in Galesburg, Louisiana, at the age of 17, graduating in 1951 with a degree in political science and English. Returning to Iraq, he found a job as a teacher, but within months was accepted into the Iraqi foreign service and spent his first two years in the ministry's UN unit. This was followed by a three-year posting to Cairo.
Already marked out as a high flier, in 1957 he was sent to New York to join Iraq's UN mission, a move that coincided with his country's election as a temporary Security Council member. Rapidly promoted, in 1961 he became Iraq's permanent representative at the UN European office in Geneva. He remained there until 1964, when he was seconded to the UN secretariat, working under U Thant.
Kurt Waldheim, then Austrian ambassador to the UN, came to know and like Ismat Kittani, and, after he became Secretary-General, appointed the Iraqi to the post of executive assistant with the rank of assistant secretary-general.
Back in the Iraqi foreign service in 1979, he happened to be chairing a committee of the non-aligned movement, meeting in Cairo to review a proposal to denounce Egypt because of Sadat's rapprochement with Israel, and the positions he had adopted on a series of controversial issues.
Boutros-Ghali, then Egypt's deputy foreign minister, has suggested in his memoirs that Ismat Kittani, risking Saddam's displeasure, saved the day for Egypt, and prevented its expulsion from the movement. Later, as UN Secretary-General, Boutros-Ghali again and again demonstrated his gratitude and high regard for Ismat Kittani, who left the Iraqi foreign service in 1989 before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
At the UN, he was named senior political adviser to the Secretary-General, and was sent on a series of missions, to which he was not always ideally suited. He was, at various times, in former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Tajikistan and Georgia. He was, however, too much of a professional diplomat - and was insufficiently in touch with the raw issues and bitter ethnic divisions he encountered - to be truly effective.
Ismat Kittani had a particularly unhappy time in Somalia, where he was sent by Boutros-Ghali to replace Mohammed Sahnoun, who had fallen out of favour with the Secretary-General for criticising UN policy in the country. Accused of arrogance and worse, he could make no headway with the warring factions.
After Kofi Annan took office, Ismat Kittani's influence waned, and there was little for him to do for the UN. He is survived by a son, Dara.
Ismat Kittani; born 1929; died, October 2001