UN:The United Nations has offered to bolster its presence in Baghdad for the first time in more than three years, laying the groundwork for a more ambitious role in mediating the country's sectarian disputes.
The move comes three weeks after President Bush delivered his second personal appeal to its secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to help resolve some of Iraq's intractable religious and ethnic conflicts. The top UN political adviser B Lynn Pascoe told the Security Council on Tuesday that the UN would be prepared to increase the size of its mission in Baghdad by nearly 50 per cent, raising the ceiling from 65 to as many as 95 international staffers in the coming months.
The UN is also seeking $130 million in funds to build a heavily reinforced compound in Baghdad to house its growing mission.
Mr Ban has been committed to do more in Iraq than his predecessor, Kofi Annan, who vigorously opposed the US invasion of Iraq. But he has been constrained by the worsening violence and resistance among some UN officials who fear inheriting some of the responsibilities in Iraq.
"There is an effort by the United States to try to reinternationalise the Iraq venture," said Qubad Talabani, a Kurdish representative and son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani. "I think there would be widespread opposition to the UN freelancing in Iraq. Any involvement by the UN has to be in very close co-ordination with the Iraqi government."
The US and Britain are pressing for a vote today on a resolution to define the UN's new tasks. It calls on the organisation to promote talks on national reconciliation and to galvanise regional and international support for Iraq. The resolution would also empower the UN to help resolve a number of territorial disputes.
"What is driving the conflict now is largely disagreement among the different Iraqi groups on political and economic distribution of power and unhelpful regional interference," said Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN. "The UN needs to play a bigger role that can help the Iraqis overcome these difficulties. One of the advantages of the UN is that it can reach out to many groups and some groups that do not want to talk to other external players", including the US and Britain.
The Bush administration's overtures to the UN contrast with its previous disdain for the organisation. On the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, President Bush predicted that the UN would meet the fate of the defunct League of Nations if it failed to confront Iraq's then president, Saddam Hussein. The Pentagon also sought to exclude the UN from reconstruction efforts.
In the months after Saddam's fall, however, the Bush administration turned to the Security Council to secure international endorsement for its occupation of Iraq. UN officials have helped establish a transitional government, organise elections and negotiate a constitution. But the organisation became a spectator as the country slid deeper into chaos.
The debate is unfolding as the drawdown of British troops in southern Iraq has forced the withdrawal of UN staff from Basra, one of three UN headquarters in the country. Pascoe said that a spike in suicide bombings in Irbil, where the UN has a small mission, made it difficult to expand operations there now. - ( LA Times-Washington Post service)