SG: Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Mr. Qazi, the Special Representative for Iraq. I am sure most of you have read about him. He comes to us with quite a lot of experience, having served in many important diplomatic missions. And more importantly, he has also served in the Middle East, as Ambassador to Syria. He served in Cairo and in Libya. He is taking on a very important challenge at a very critical time. He will go to Iraq as soon as practicable to continue his work there. I will ask him to say a few words to you, and if you have one or two questions we will take them.
Mr. Qazi: Well, it is a great honour and privilege to have been selected by the Secretary-General to be the Special Representative for Iraq. I am confident that I will justify the trust that has been reposed in me. I know it is a very challenging assignment, but it is also an extraordinarily important assignment. We will all be working for the welfare and improvement of the conditions for the people of Iraq, by making a very successful political transition as mandated by the UN Security Council resolution.
Q: Mr. Ambassador, when your appointment was announced it was said that you were going to be going to Iraq in late July or early August. Is that now falling back? I noticed the Secretary-General just said “as soon as practicable.”
And as a question for the Secretary-General, is one of the problems the problem that you addressed yesterday, that there are still no contributions to the UN protection force?
SG: I think the Special Representative will go to Baghdad. We will be able to work out security arrangements for him and a small group of staff. But for the UN to build up a larger presence, we are going to need the security arrangements envisioned by the Resolution –that is –a dedicated force protecting the UN staff and its facilities. But adequate security arrangements will be made for the Ambassador and a small staff to go to Baghdad in August sometime.
Q: Sir, can I ask a follow up question. The Secretary-General spoke earlier about your credentials that actually convinced him to appoint you to this point. To what extent do you think that your appointment was dictated by the hope that Pakistan may be able to contribute troops? And if you could also tell us about the practical steps that you intend to take to help the Iraqis with holding the elections.
SG: Let me take the first question. I don't think it is fair to ask him to answer the first question. As I indicated, a request had gone out to quite a few countries to offer troops. In my own discussions with the President of Pakistan not long ago on the question of troops for Iraq, he had indicated that Pakistan would be prepared to consider offering troops provided the request comes from Iraq, and there are other Islamic countries on the ground. Recently there is a move, an indication that Islamic countries may want to go to Iraq, may want to send troops and in fact the Prime Minister, Allawi, is asking them to do so. If that were to happen and a group of Islamic states were to deploy, I hope Pakistan would be one of them. But there was no quid pro quo or any expectation that, because I have appointed a Pakistani, they would give me troops.
Mr. Qazi: And the second part of your question was?
Q: About the practical steps that you intend to take to help the Iraqis when holding the elections.
Mr. Qazi: Well I think they have been spelled out in the UN Security Council resolution 1546, which shows a national conference would take place, there would be an Interim Council, then the elections by January of ཁ, which would then lead to the post electoral phase –constitutional building –and then finally an election under the Constitution.
SG: Let me say here that we are going to assist and advise the Iraqis. We are not going to run the elections. The Iraqis will run the elections with our help, our advice and technical assistance, and I think they will be able to do it. We are structured to be able to give them that advice, and of course, the ground work has been laid by the work that Carina Perelli and the electoral team did the last couple of months. We need to work with the Iraqis to implement that.
Q: So, Mr. Qazi, what will your contribution actually be, personally, to the process that the Secretary-General has just outlined?
Mr. Qazi: Well, one of them is to work as closely as possible with the interim government, and to work with the disparate elements in Iraq, and to bring them into the political process, and also to consult with the neighbouring countries, the P5 countries, so I think that will be a very important part of my mission.
Q: Mr. Ambassador, the Ahtisaari report…
SG: SRSG!
Q: Mr. SRSG! The Ahtisaari report into the August 19th bombing on the Baghdad offices of the United Nations last year indicated that, to some extent, the United Nations had underestimated the ill-will the Iraqis felt about the world body, and that was at a time when the insurgency obviously wasn't as strong as it is now. Do you feel certain that you are wanted? And do you feel certain that you will be able to work out the security arrangements to guarantee your safety given the situation?
Mr. Qazi: I understand that security is not only the first consideration –it is the first priority, the second priority and the third priority. A huge amount of work is going into that. But also I believe that reports coming out of Iraq are that they do believe that the UN has a vital role, and a vital role of assistance, of facilitation, to play in bringing about a successful political transition in which the entire Iraqi people are stakeholders. So I believe there is every reason for the Iraqi people to see the UN mission in Iraq as a mission in their service and for them. And it will be my job to strengthen that impression there. And ultimately, of course, life and death are in the hands of, as we say, Allah subhanahu wa taala [God Almighty] –I have that faith but I also know that, apart from faith, all the necessary arrangements are being made and we are going there to be of assistance to the Iraqi people, to the Iraqi government.
Q: As a follow up to that, if I could ask you Sir. Do you think the international community should perhaps scale back its expectations as to what the United Nations can achieve in Iraq, because of the concerns that [my colleague had?]
SG: I have always indicated that we all have to be coldly realistic as to how we approach this project. I think the international community is aware that security is a major constraint for the UN and its staff, and I think it was for that reason that they inserted the phrase “circumstances permitting.” But despite the security situation we have been able to achieve a lot. I mean and we have been able to help form an interim government. We have been able to work with them to put in place an electoral framework, a legal framework for elections, and they are counting on us to help them work their way through the electoral process until the elections next year, and also assist with the constitutional process. That work, I think we are going to do. But also, everyone must realize that beyond that, the circumstances have to be right for us to scale up our operations and activities and get into other areas like institution building and human rights, recovery and reconstruction. And so, we are here and now focusing on the absolutely essential and will send additional staff as and when the security environment permits. And this, I think, the international community understands.