British Prime Minster Tony Blair said Thursday that the UN should play a key role in mediating Iraq's transition to sovereignty and curtailing the violence that has hindered the US-led occupation.
"The circumstances will require us at some point in the near future to have a new UN Security Council resolution that will allow us to point [the] way toward political transition in Iraq," said Blair, who was to meet US President George W. Bush yesterday to discuss the Iraq crisis.
Blair made the comments during a joint news conference with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the residence of the British ambassador to the UN, Emyr Jones Parry.
Annan said he and Blair discussed the recommendations by his special adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, for a caretaker government to take power from the US-led coalition on June 30 and lead Iraq until elections in January.
"It has not been easy," Annan said, "but we are trying to do whatever we can to help."
Annan said Brahimi has been trying "to encourage the Iraqis to come to some consensus on how to form a transitional government, and I think Mr. Brahimi's effort is to help them move in that direction."
Brahimi left Iraq on Thursday and is expected to return to New York in late April to brief Annan and the UN Security Council before returning to Iraq to finalize his recommendations on a transitional government.
He went to Iraq at the request of the coalition and the 25-member US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to try to come up with a plan acceptable to a wide range of Iraqis. In recent days, Iraq has seen the heaviest fighting since Baghdad fell to US troops a year ago, with coalition forces fighting Sunni and Shiite Muslim militants.
The violence "is obviously a difficult issue, particularly with security at the moment," Blair said.
"But our determination to get there remains undimmed," he said.
"We have to stand firm," he said.
Blair is one of the staunchest supporters of US foreign policy in Iraq, the Middle East and elsewhere, despite criticism at home. He and Bush last met in November, when Bush traveled to Britain.
Britain has about 8,000 troops in Iraq, one of several allies backing up the US force of more than 135,000.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS