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Anti-War Alliance Pushes for Key UN Role in Iraq

Friday, April 11, 2003
(2:32 PM)
Reuters

Putin, eager to balance opposition to war with Moscow's post-September 11, 2001, friendship with Washington, has made no comment since U.S. tanks moved into central Baghdad. Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov met the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, on the eve of the summit, and the ministry said they agreed current differences "should not lead to a rift in the U.N. Security Council".

Reuters
Russia added its voice on Friday to European calls for a central U.N. role in Iraq as the French, German and Russian leaders prepared for talks on rebuilding the nation and mending ties with Washington.

But comments from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell boded ill for the three most vocal opponents of the conflict – dubbed the "non-nyet-nein" alliance – and their efforts to guarantee the United Nations a political say in post-war Iraq.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, on a visit to former Soviet Tajikistan, told reporters it was up to the United Nations to safeguard international peace and security. "We hope the United Nations will perform this central role, in particular, in the settlement of Iraq's post-war situation," he said. "This authority must be used to achieve a political settlement in Iraq within the shortest time possible. This is in the interests of the Iraqi people. This is in the interests of the whole region."

Powell has mocked similar appeals from European leaders for a central U.N. role.

"I'm not quite sure what that means," Powell told the Los Angeles Times. "They just say 'central' and then they go on to their next meeting." "The suggestion that some of my colleagues would give that now that the coalition has done all of this and liberated Iraq, thank you very much, step aside and the Security Council is now going to become responsible for everything, is incorrect. And they know it. And they were told it," Powell said.
(More: Gazeta.RU)
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