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UN Security Council extends coalition
force mandate in Iraq
8.1.2008
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January 8, 2008
NEW YORK, -- The UN Security Council last
month agreed unanimously to extend for one year the
mandate of the multi-national force in Iraq.
Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG)
Coordinator with UN Agencies in the Kurdistan
Region, was a guest of the Iraqi Permanent Mission
to the UN when its representatives met the Security
Council to extend the mandate.
The Security Council members voted unanimously in
favour of the Iraqi government’s request, extending
the mandate until 31 December 2008 by adopting
resolution 1790.
Dr Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Permanent Representative
to the UN, said the extension would provide “support
for the people and government of Iraq as they work
to consolidate and extend the gains made this year.”
As well as extending the mandate for the
multi-national force, the Security Council voted
last summer to expand the UN’s role in Iraq . And
the UN co-launched in 2006 a compact for Iraq that
sets benchmarks for Baghdad in exchange for debt
forgiveness and other aid. Ambassador Khalilzad
said, “Together these actions signal that the
international community recognizes that what happens
in Iraq has profound consequences for us all.”
Dr Hamid al-Bayati, Iraq's ambassador to the United
Nations, told the Security Council that Iraq was
making solid political and security progress. “The
remnants of Al-Qaeda along with their allies suffer
continued defeats,”www.ekurd.net
he said. “The Iraqi
government has accomplished enormous steps towards
the day when self-sustaining Iraqi security forces
will be able to provide security to the Iraqi
people.”
The Iraqi Permanent Mission to the UN invited Zebari
to attend the General Assembly Fifth Committee,
which deals with administrative and budgetary
matters. Zebari highlighted to the committee the
importance of the work the United Nations Assistance
Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) undertakes in the Kurdistan
Region and other parts of Iraq.
During his visit to the UN headquarters in New York,
Zebari met Ambassador Khalilzad and other
representatives of the Security Council’s permanent
five member states. He told them that the KRG is
against the use of its territory by any party to
threaten the security of neighbouring countries,www.ekurd.net
and that Turkey should
use dialogue and diplomacy to solve its current
problems.
Zebari also went to Washington DC, where he met
Richard Schmierer, the US State Department’s
Director of the Iraq Desk, and other State
Department officials, and asked them to support a
closer working relationship between UN agencies and
the Kurdistan Regional Government.
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