Iraq – Various members of the UN Safety Council, together with Russia and China, yesterday supported Baghdad’s request to finish the mission of the United Nations mission in Iraq by subsequent 12 months, however Washington didn’t help this step.
Final week, the Iraqi authorities requested the United Nations to finish by the tip of 2025 its political mission that it has been performing within the nation for greater than 20 years, contemplating that it’s not obligatory.
Iraq’s Deputy Consultant to the United Nations, Abbas Kadhim Obaid Al-Fatlawi, repeated the request earlier than the Council on Thursday, saying, “The mission achieved its targets.”
Russian envoy Vasily Nebenzia supported this standpoint, saying that “Iraqis are able to bear accountability for the political way forward for their nation.”
He added, “The remaining issues should not turn into an excuse for the United Nations mission to stay within the nation indefinitely.”
China’s Deputy Consultant to the United Nations, Geng Shuang, famous that throughout the framework of the annual renewal of the mission, whose mandate expires on the finish of Could, the Council should “suggest a plan so as to guarantee gradual withdrawal and a easy transition in direction of ultimate withdrawal.”
On condition that UN missions can solely function with the consent of the host nation, Britain and France have additionally expressed their help for the shift within the partnership between Iraq and the UN.
The place of the US was extra ambiguous, as Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that the United Nations Mission (UNAMI) nonetheless had “necessary work to carry out,” ignoring Baghdad’s request.
She emphasised the mission’s key function in lots of necessary political points, akin to supporting the group of elections and selling human rights, though Iraq clearly requested that the mission focus extra instantly on financial points.
In an evaluation requested by the Council, German diplomat Volker Perthes stated final March that the United Nations Help Mission for Iraq, which had greater than 700 staff as of late 2023, “seems in its present type to be very giant.”
Perthes referred to as on the mission to “start transferring its duties to the nationwide establishments and the United Nations crew within the nation in a accountable, organized and gradual method inside an agreed upon time-frame.”
With out commenting on Baghdad’s request, the Particular Consultant of the Secretary-Basic of the United Nations in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, painted an image of Iraq that “seems totally different from the nation by which UNAMI was first deployed practically 20 years in the past.”
She added, “Right now, so to talk, we’re witnessing an Iraq in improvement,” however on the similar time she spoke of a number of challenges that haven’t but been resolved, akin to corruption and the difficulty of armed factions working outdoors the management of the state.
She continued, “I imagine that the time has come to guage the nation primarily based on the progress achieved, and switch the web page on the darkish photographs of Iraq’s previous.”
The mission, which was established by the Safety Council in 2003, following the overthrow of the late President Saddam Hussein, got here on the request of the Iraqi authorities and was strengthened in 2007 and is renewed yearly. Its mandate is to offer help to the federal government of Iraq so as to promote complete political dialogue, nationwide reconciliation, holding elections, and safety reform.
Supply: AFP
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2024-05-18 07:23:54