More good news for President Bush!
Posted on 06/14/2004 12:41:48 PM PDT by BushisTheMan
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - The U.N. secretary-general called on Islamic countries Monday to support the new Iraqi government and the head of the world's largest Islamic organization said member states must extend ``financial, moral and diplomatic support'' to Iraq.
Also Monday, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told foreign ministers of the 57-country Organization of the Islamic Conference that it was of ``vital importance'' that Islamic countries accelerate democratic reforms.
Iraq and calls for democratic reform are expected to dominate the three-day gathering. Many leaders of Muslim nations have balked at reforms and have kept the U.S.-backed government in Iraq at arms length.
The U.S. government has been pressing Muslim countries on both issues.
Iraq expects ``active and positive participation by Islamic countries,'' Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press.
``Our expectation is that they will stand with the Iraqi people and extend a helping hand to rid it (Iraq) of the ordeal it is facing,'' Zebari said.
He did not specify how Islamic countries could help, but most aid is expected to be economic or political. Most Muslim countries have balked at sending peacekeepers to Iraq.
``I appeal to you to respond favorably to the interim government's request for support,'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a message to the meeting read by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
``All of you have an interest in helping the country surmount the many challenges it faces, including the creation of adequate conditions for elections,'' the statement said.
Most governments in Muslim countries were strongly against the U.S. war that ousted Saddam Hussein and viewed the Governing Council that replaced his rule as a U.S. creation. An interim government - put together by American, U.N. and Iraqi officials - is trying to establish its own legitimacy and support from Islamic countries would be a boost to the incoming Iraqi administration and the United States.
``We must meet any needs formulated by the new government for the purposes of running the country and its reconstruction; and extend our financial, moral, and diplomatic support to its political, economic and social projects,'' OIC Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz said in his address to the meeting. ``Our support will help the new government to move beyond this critical and perilous transition period and guarantee the sovereignty, independence, security and safety, and national and territorial integrity of Iraq and Iraqi citizens.''
The conference is expected to adopt a joint stance on Wednesday.
Belkeziz also said it was ``high time for the Islamic world to take a decisive position on democracy.''
``Much hinges on that position, if we are to move away from being the passive objects of others' influence to the active agents of a positive influence on international affairs,'' he said.
Many speakers at the conference addressed U.S. calls for increased democracy in the Islamic world, where autocratic rule is common. Many Muslim leaders regard the U.S. calls as interference in their domestic affairs.
``It is of vital importance that the members of the OIC clearly lay out their will to accelerate political, social and economic reform to catch up with the times,'' Sezer said in his opening address to the conference.
``The issue is not so much whether the idea of establishing democracy in the Middle East is realistic, but rather how the longing for democracy can be met and how it can be brought to life,'' Sezer added. ``Every country's social conditions will naturally determine the pace for reforms, but it is clear that there should be consensus on the inevitability of the reforms.''
I wonder if today's survey about the UN being the most corrupt organization by the employees themselves has anything to do with this? Many were happy that someone was actually taking a survey. Many said the corruption was at the "top" and many said that the good-ol' boy network was very thick and hard to penetrate.
Annan is toast!
Other than in the minds of some Europeans who wish they could be world powers again and liberals who want to globalize our nation, the UN hasn't been relevant in a long time. Any organization that gives France an equal vote on any issue involving military action is out of touch. Maginot Line anyone?
Thanks Kofi, but that still won't stop us from prosecuting your son (and the rest of the guily UN leeches).
More good news for President Bush!
Kofi probably thinks he's an Arab.
Wow, this is really a dynamic announcement by Annan.
There have been a number of local elections. Defacto government operations have been under Iraqi control for quite some time now. Now Annan has a bright idea, and thinks it's time for hims to throw some U.N. holy water on all this and bless it.
Frankly Kofi, you're about eighteen months too late to be relevent. Any relevency you now enjoy, is basicly a gift from U.S. leaders who have made a mistake in giving it to you.
Enjoy while you can you limp biscuit.
I'd be surprised if these kleptoplutocracies bestirred themselves to take a decisive position on slavery let alone democracy.
He is, after all, "Famous Anus".
Maybe he should get some confirmation from the Arabs from that first. He is greedy enough and manipulative enough to be one, but I seem to recall that the real tribal Arabs don't much cater to persons of his color. In fact, they still enslave them to be camel jockies.
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