Sunday, November 16, 2003

U.N. Officials Are Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop:
"``There may be a temptation to rub one's hands together and say, `Ha, ha! It's not working out the way Bush thought - we told you so!''' a senior United Nations administrator said this week. ``But, frankly, it's not good for anyone if the U.S. is defeated in Iraq.'' "

When United Nations officials speak of Iraq these days, any impulse to gloat is overwhelmed by frustration with the harsh realities of the situation in Iraq and sadness over the loss of 22 colleagues and visitors in the Aug. 19 bombing of their Baghdad headquarters.…

The Bush administration's decision this week to speed up the transfer of power to the Iraqis won evenhanded, public praise from Secretary General Kofi Annan, who had long championed a quicker restoration of Iraqi sovereignty.

But officials and diplomats here, while welcoming the policy change, warned privately against a rapid reduction of American military forces and said they feared that the United States would dump Iraq into the hands of the United Nations.

Mr. Annan has never been a proponent of a United Nations administration for Iraq, like in East Timor or Kosovo. Instead, he has said that the United Nations should help shepherd the transition under the authority of a sovereign, broad-based interim government and alongside a multinational security force led by the United States and endorsed by the Security Council.

But as the violence in Iraq worsens under the American occupation, the future participation of the United Nations in Iraq will remain highly uncertain, even doubtful, officials say.…

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/international/middleeast/16WEB-NATI.html

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