Straw underlines importance of Iraq challenge
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 21, IRNA -- Foreign Secretary Jack Straw underlined the important challenges in Iraq by devoting his entire speech to the issues confronting the US and UK occupation in his address to the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. While `2003 was momentous for Iraq`, Straw said that 2004 would be to `build from this historic turning point the new Iraq which its people want`. He said he makes `no secret of the fact that there are serious challenges ahead for Iraq -- on security, on employment, on making a success of the political and constitutional process`. "The decision to take military action was and remains controversial," the British foreign secretary admitted as he appealed for international support. He said that he respected the views of those who disagreed, but that he would `ask them in turn to look back a year and consider the consequences of allowing Saddam Hussein to defy the final warning issued unanimously by the Security Council in Resolution 1441`. "Whatever the differences a year ago, the whole international community today stands behind the Iraqi people," Straw said, adding that the difficulties in the country `can be overcome with determined and focussed effort`. In his speech, he welcomed the decision by Secretary General Kofi Annan to consider sending a UN technical team to Iraq to look into the feasibility of elections before June. "No-one argued that this was a process which would be over in a matter of months, and we still have a long way to go. The security situation is of course my one concern," the foreign secretary said. He said that there had also been difficulties in other areas too, such as reconstruction and admitted that the problems had perhaps being `more than some expected`. HC/AH/210 End
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