25 September 2003
United Nations Still Has "Vital Role" in Iraq, White House Says
Understands U.N. decision to temporarily withdraw some staff
By Wendy Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent
Washington -- The United States understands the United Nations' decision to temporarily withdraw some of its remaining international Iraq staff to Amman, Jordan, for security reasons, but the world organization still has "a vital role" to play in Iraq, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters September 25.
Earlier in the day, United Nations spokesman Fred Eckhard announced that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, on the advice of his security coordinator, had ordered a temporary redeployment of U.N. international staff from Iraq.
Eckhard, speaking to reporters at his daily noon briefing in New York, said 42 U.N. international staffers remain in Baghdad and 44 in the north of the country, "and those numbers can be expected to shrink further over the next few days. This is not an evacuation, just a further downsizing, and the security situation in the country remains under constant review," the U.N. spokesman said.
He added that "essential humanitarian activities in Iraq continue, thanks to the effort of our more than 4,000 national staff [of Iraqis] in the country."
The United Nations "has played a vital role" and has "a vital role to continue to play," White House spokesman McClellan said.
"We believe that they should be involved in the process of leading up to free elections and drafting a constitution. They have a lot of history of experience working on those issues, and we believe they can play a vital role. We understand, in the wake of the bombings, some of their concerns and some of their decisions," he said.
A suicide bomb attack on U.N. Baghdad headquarters August 19 killed 22 people, including the head of the U.N. mission, Sergio Vieira de Mello. A second bomb attack on the compound on September 22 killed an Iraqi policeman and wounded 19, including local U.N. workers, according to news reports.
McClellan noted that Secretary General Annan has said the United Nations remains committed to its role in Iraq.
"Certainly, in the wake of the recent bombing of the United Nations headquarters, we understand the grief of the United Nations family and the need to ensure the safety of United Nations employees in Iraq," McClellan said. "The Coalition Provisional Authority and coalition forces in Iraq will continue working closely with United Nations officials to ensure the protection of U.N. employees. And while that's going on, we've understood that there might be some reductions."
President Bush "made it very clear" in his September 23 speech at the United Nations that the world has a stake in what is going on in Iraq, the spokesman said. "Iraq is now the central front in the war on terrorism," McClellan said.
The international community, McClellan added, "has a stake in seeing a free, sovereign and prosperous Iraq, because that will help bring about peace and stability in a very volatile region of the world, a region that has spawned terrorism, a region that has been a breeding ground for terrorism."
The United States, McClellan said, is continuing to work to broaden the international participation in Iraq. "We're continuing to talk to countries about different ways they can contribute, whether it's troops, or whether it's financial assistance," he said.
In his September 23 speech to the U.N. General Assembly and in his meetings with several world leaders, President Bush did not ask countries for specific contributions for Iraq, but he has made it very clear that he appreciates additional support and welcomes additional support, McClellan said.
"The purpose of the president going to the United Nations was not for him to ask for specific tasks that other nations could carry out," the spokesman said. "We have other senior officials in the administration that are working with countries on those issues and talking to countries. That was not the president's purpose."
His purpose, McClellan said, was "to emphasize the importance of what we're trying to achieve in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, the importance of addressing one of the most dangerous threats of our time -- the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the importance of working together on all these issues and working together on humanitarian crises around the world, such as AIDS and famine and the trafficking of human beings.
"So the president outlined these important priorities and said we welcome broader international support of what's going on in Iraq, because the international community has a stake of what's going on in Iraq. But others will be talking to countries, continuing to talk to countries about specific ways that they can contribute."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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