Global Policy Forum

By Elaine Sciolino and Warren Hoge

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, announced Tuesday that he would send a team of experts to Iraq in an effort to end the deadlock over how to transfer power to the Iraqi people.

In a statement issued here and at United Nations headquarters announcing his decision, Mr. Annan said, "I have concluded that the United Nations can play a constructive role in helping to break the current impasse." Noting that "there is a certain impasse on the ground in Iraq today," Mr. Annan said he had agreed to an urgent request of American, British and Iraqi officials at a meeting at the United Nations on Jan. 19 to send a team to Iraq to assess the feasibility of holding direct elections before the end of May.

Elaborating later in the day in a news conference at í‰lysée Palace after lunch with the French president, Jacques Chirac, Mr. Annan said, "As soon as we have signs that the practical arrangements and the security arrangements are ready, and that they are ready to protect my people, we are ready to send the mission." A United Nations military adviser and security coordinator have been in Baghdad since Friday to assess the security situation.

Mr. Annan did not specify the timing, composition, size or exact mandate of the mission, although diplomats in New York said they hoped the mission could go next week. "Consensus among all Iraqi constituencies would be the best guarantee of a legitimate and credible transitional governance arrangement for Iraq," he said. Without such consensus, he said, "You run the risk that the conflict and the divisions will continue."

His announcement signaled the world organization's re-entry to Iraq three months after its international staff was removed from the country following attacks on relief workers and the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters. Twenty-two people, including the United Nations mission chief, Sergio Vieira de Mello, were killed in the attack, the United Nations said. Mr. Annan said he did not intend to send a permanent replacement for Mr. Vieira de Mello at this time.

The urgent requests for the help of the United Nations reflected a clear shift by the Bush administration, which had kept the world organization out of current planning in Iraq and not even mentioned a United Nations role in an agreement last November under which the procedures for transferring power were drawn up.

At the United Nations on Tuesday, Shashi Tharoor, the under secretary for communications and public information, was asked if Mr. Annan's announcement pointed to the end of a period of ill will. He replied, "We are putting the past behind us and looking forward, that is certainly what this is all about."

John D. Negroponte, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said, "Today's announcement is a positive development and part of the process on the part of the secretary general and the United Nations to re-engage itself in Iraq. Clearly the United Nations can play a role in the unfolding political process in Iraq."

Later in the day, Mr. Annan and Mr. Chirac stood side by side at the presidential palace for a news conference. Both men had been outspoken in their opposition to the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. But both United Nations and French officials insisted that there was no political significance to the fact that Mr. Annan was in Paris when the statement was issued, noting that the trip and the meeting with Mr. Chirac had been long planned.

On the eve of the American-led war in Iraq, Mr. Annan questioned its legitimacy if it went forward without a Security Council mandate. Mr. Chirac had argued that United Nations weapons inspectors should be allowed to have more time to search for unconventional weapons. Mr. Chirac's threat to veto any war resolution in the Security Council was a major factor in the Bush administration's decision to wage war without United Nations approval. Now France, which has refused to send financial aid or troops to the reconstruction of Iraq, finds itself struggling to mend fences with the United States and to find ways to participate in Iraq's future.

There were signs, however, of a possible thaw. The United States under secretary of commerce for international trade, Grant Aldonas, said here that the United States planned to open the door to French companies to bid for a second wave of American-financed reconstruction contracts in Iraq. President Bush had punished opponents of the Iraq war, including France, by excluding them from bidding on initial reconstruction projects. At one point in the news conference, Mr. Annan was asked about the possibility of sending a classic United Nations peacekeeping force under a United Nations flag. He waved away that notion, saying, "I do not believe that the question of blue helmets is posed, for the moment, or even in the future."

But he did not rule out a broader peacekeeping effort at some point. "I believe that what we can foresee is a multinational force authorized by the Security Council that can work with the Iraqis to stabilize and secure Iraq."

The process of returning sovereignty to Iraq is of crucial importance, not only for the Iraqi people but also for the Bush administration and the United Nations. At issue are clashing ideas of how to transfer sovereignty by a June 30 deadline that the United States has set and promised to adhere to, despite security and political setbacks on the ground. The American plan is a complex one, based on a caucuses in all 18 Iraqi provinces aimed at selecting an assembly that will in turn choose an interim government by July.

The plan ran into opposition from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top spiritual leader of the majority Shiite Muslims, who contended it did not promise a representative government and insisted instead on direct elections. Individual members of the Iraqi Governing Council have proposed a rival method that would expand their numbers to 125 members from the current 25 and keep them in power as the new sovereign government until elections can be safely held.

The United States argues that direct elections are impossible to organize in the short time available, and it hopes that the United Nations team will validate that view. Ayatollah Sistani has dismissed the American objection but has said through associates that he would accept the judgment if it came from the United Nations. Time is short because there is a Feb. 28 deadline for the completion of an interim constitution, known as the fundamental law, and work on it by a 10-member drafting committee has been virtually suspended pending a verdict on elections by the United Nations team.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.