World - Reuters
Brahimi's Israel Comments Draw Annan, Israeli Ire
Date: Fri, Apr 23, 2004
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations (news - web sites) Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) distanced himself on Friday from comments by his special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who said Israel's "poison in the region" was complicating his search for an interim Iraqi government.
"Mr. Brahimi was expressing his personal views," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in answer to questions.
"The secretary-general's views, as expressed over the last seven years, do not contain the word 'poison,"' Eckhard said.
Israel's U.N. mission said it was "disturbed" by Brahimi's statements, saying a U.N. official should not voice personal opinions, especially when they contradicted U.N. policy.
Brahimi told France's Inter radio on Thursday that Israeli policies toward Palestinians and Washington's support for them hindered his search for a caretaker Iraqi regime that would take power on June 30 when the U.S.-led occupation ends.
"The problems are linked, there is no doubt about it," said Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister. "The big poison in the region is the Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians."
Brahimi said his job was complicated by Iraqi perceptions of "Israel's completely violent and repressive security policy and determination to occupy more and more Palestinian territory."
Eckhard told reporters at his daily news briefing, "As a preliminary reaction I could say that as you know he is a former foreign minister of Algeria and therefore he brings to the table strongly held and strongly expressed views about the Middle East peace process."
"However, the official position of the United Nations on such matters is that set out by the secretary general in the many statements he has issued over the last seven years."
At Israel's U.N. mission, Arye Mekel, the deputy ambassador, said, "We are very disturbed by this statement of Brahimi. A U.N. official when he speaks in public cannot be a private person."
Mekel said that when U.N. officials criticize a member state "they damage the image of the United Nations as an impartial organization."
He said Israeli officials had been told to separate the views of U.N. officials from the "automatic anti-Israel majority" among member states.
"This only enhances suspicions of the United Nations staff itself when they use language linking us with Iraq (news - web sites) where we have no business," Mekel said in a telephone interview.
The Israeli diplomat said Brahimi's views contradicted statements by Annan and those of Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. special Middle East envoy, who on Friday again praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) for his "boldness and vision" in deciding to remove Jewish settlers from Gaza.
Annan has had closer relations with Israel than most of his predecessors and has frequently honored the legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved 100,000 Jews in Hungary from Nazi death camps toward the end of World War II. Annan's wife, Nane, is Wallenberg's niece.
Brahimi, who forged an interim government in Afghanistan (news - web sites) after the U.S. overthrow of the Taliban, was urged by the Bush administration to do the same in Iraq.
According to his blueprint, the new Iraqi caretaker government would be made up of a prime minister, a president, two vice presidents and cabinet ministers, divided among Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.
This would supplant the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. Brahimi, who briefs the U.N. Security Council next Tuesday, also called for a 1,000-member consultative assembly and a 100-member "executive committee" that would serve until elections could be held next January. ((Reporting by Evelyn Leopold, editing by Giles Elgood; Reuters messaging: Evelyn.Leopold.reuters.com@reuters.net; 1-212-355-7424)
SOURCE
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. 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.