http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/08/1752/Is US Eyeing UN as Dumping Ground for Iraq?
by Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Faced with an unwinnable five-year war in Iraq, the United States may be looking towards the United Nations to extricate it out of the growing military quagmire, according to diplomats and political analysts.
“With the war turning out to be a huge political liability for the ruling Republican Party at the upcoming elections in November,” an Asian diplomat told IPS, “it is a safe guess the White House may eventually dump Iraq on the United Nations.”
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The United Nations downsized its operations in Iraq following a bomb explosion in August 2003 when 22 died, including U.N. Special Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. Currently, most U.N. staffers operate either out of Cyprus or neighbouring Jordan.
Last month, a London newspaper quoted an unnamed former official of the Bush administration as saying the White House may opt to gradually hand over many of the current U.S. responsibilities to the international community, including “an expanded U.N. involvement in overseeing Iraq’s full transition to a normal democratic state.”
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan famously said that the U.S. war on Iraq was “illegal” because it was not sanctioned by the Security Council.
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