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Sergei Ivanov calls for defining mandate of forces in Iraq

IRNA

Reykjavik (Iceland), Oct 5, Itar-Tass/ACSNA/IRNA -- It is necessary to
define a mandate of the multinational force in Iraq and make it 
transparent, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in Reykjavik 
on Sunday. 
"The mandate should enable many countries, including Arab 
neighbors, to stretch out a helping hand to the people of Iraq, so 
that Iraqi people realize that it is genuine assistance, not the 
striving to solve a private, local task," the minister noted. 
"In contrast to Afghanistan, Iraq is not a poor begging country. 
It is quite capable of efficient functioning," Ivanov said. 
"The mandate should show to the people of Iraq that it is not the 
matter of certain military tasks or the wish to suppress the will of 
the Iraqi people, but the striving to give democratic assistance, 
launch the economic and political processes and promote the adoption 
of a constitution." 
It is most important for the Iraqi people `to prevent the vacuum 
of security, because the situation there is not improving, to put it 
mildly. The vacuum of security theoretically may repeat the situation 
Afghanistan had several years ago, when nobody controlled anything and
dozens of principalities were formed under control of field 
commanders. That would not meet anybody`s interests, including the 
interests of Russia," he said. 
"In fact, only Iraqis themselves can provide for security in Iraq.
Nobody else is capable of providing for lasting security," the 
minister stressed. 
Russia is dissatisfied with the American draft resolution on Iraq,
because it does not reflect the peacekeeping nature of the UN mission,
Ivanov noted. 
"First and foremost, we are dissatisfied with the resolution 
because we do not see any clauses to display the genuinely 
peacekeeping nature of the [UN] mission and the striving of the 
international community, primarily the neighbors of Iraq, to assist 
that country on behalf of the United Nations in the reconstruction of 
the ruined infrastructure, industrial facilities, communication, 
energy and water supply, that is everything without which peace life 
in Iraq will be rather difficult," the minister said. 
/AH/210 
End