Word: un
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...brook no delay beyond the beginning of next year. Organizing those will fall to whatever interim government replaces Bremer's administration - a question not yet resolved after Bremer's caucus proposal collapsed in the face of Shiite opposition. Shiite leaders have demanded that the poll be conducted under UN supervision, and they have also left no doubt that they intend to use their power on the streets to press their case...
...will, in his view, have no business privatizing state industries, doling out oil contracts, concluding treaties or taking any other decisions with long-term consequences. And the Shiite leadership wants the terms of the provisional government's mandate, and a strict timetable for elections, spelled out in a UN Security Council resolution. The Shiite Ayatollah wants the UN to play the leading role in Iraq's transition to sovereignty, he told a German magazine last weekend, and he expects it to oversee and supervise the election process...
...determined to cede political control by June 30 and the Iraqis are not prepared to allow an unelected body to assume full political control, a bridge is required - and given the willingness of the Shiite leadership to accept the UN as an honest broker, there may be growing pressure to use the Security Council as the vehicle to mandate a transition process that also creates a legal framework mandating the coalition to continue in its role as guarantor of security...
...Originally, the Bush administration had hoped to cultivate a friendly, moderate Iraqi government via the IGC, to which it would incrementally hand over power, eliminating the need for UN involvement - which naturally opens the process up to the influence of countries hostile to the U.S. invasion. A friendly government nurtured under U.S. tutelage would have had the added advantage of giving the U.S. potentially its most pliable ally at the heart of the Arab world and making Iraq the key base for U.S. military operations throughout the region now that the Pentagon's footprint in Saudi Arabia is being sharply...
...Chances of realizing that "best-case" scenario appear increasingly remote. The Iraqis themselves are in a hurry to elect their own government, and the Bush administration is determined to hand off political authority in Baghdad. The interim thus created suggests both a greater role for the UN, and that the major political force driving Iraq's transition will be Iraqis not closely allied with Washington. Despite its heavy investment of life and treasure in regime-change in Iraq, the Bush administration may soon be approaching an "If you love something, let it go" moment...