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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Reversing course as TV images showed a mob in Baghdad tearing down a statue of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Arab nations withdrew on Wednesday a request for a U.N. General Assembly meeting on Iraq. "With the rapid developments, the Arab group has decided to put it on hold, pending more clarity in the situation" said one Arab envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity. Several Arab envoys insisted the initiative had merely been suspended and would be revived at a later date. But Kuwaiti Ambassador Mohammad Abulhasan, whose government opposed a special session from the start, predicted...

The waging of an illegal war, the crimes against the Iraqi people, the killing of independent journalists. This man is a war criminal. He should be convicted as soon as possible.

What the UN does and does not want to do in Iraq By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (Reuters) - The United Nations has a "do" and "don't" list for Iraq. What it does not want to do is run or administer Iraq, provide security -- or endorse a U.S. hand-picked government in Baghdad. But Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be willing to help set up an interim Iraqi administration to steer the country towards new self-government as the world body did in Afghanistan, according to diplomats and U.N. officials. Most American officials agree that the United Nations should have...

THE UN Security Council has asked the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate the massacre of nearly 1000 people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The 15-member council asked the commissioner "to initiate an investigation on these events and report to the Council as soon as possible," said Mexican ambassador to the United Nations Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, whose country holds the rotating presidency. "Members of the Council condemned the massacres ... and asked that the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice immediately." The UN mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, reported...

The French practice expressing disagreement all the time, at home, at school, out eating or even shopping. Ever since an American foundation sent us to France in 1999, we have been marvelling at how easily France wins the starring role as the enemy of American interests in any international dispute. We moved to France for a two-year fellowship to study why the French resist globalization. We had only been there for three weeks when we saw that that the French weren't resisting globalization at all, if ever so slightly - which left us two years to figure out why everyone...

One of the best things about the past three weeks of war is that we haven't had to think about the French, Germans, Russians or the UN. But, alas, few good things ever last forever. From Paris, Berlin, Moscow and from the Glass Palace on the East River, those who pulled every diplomatic trick to stop us from taking on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein are scurrying to get in on the after-party. And let's be clear: The spoils of victory are what it's all about. Iraq is a wealthy country. Our "allies" opposed the war because it threatened their commercial...

Ayman El-Amir examines the options open to the UN in deligitimising a US invasion of Iraq Sunday, somewhere on the outskirts of Basra, an Iraqi woman flees the city -- declared "a legitimate military target" by British military commanders -- carrying an infant in her arms ----------------------------------------------- With the war against Iraq entering its third week there is no sign of any serious action being taken by the UN to confront the military situation. Apart from some sheepish remarks by senior officials about humanitarian assistance the world body appears to have thrown its charter out of the window of the...

PARIS, April 8 (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday reiterated that the United Nations must play the central role in overseeing the reconstruction of postwar Iraq. "It is up to the United Nations -- and it alone -- to take on the political, economic, humanitarian and administrative reconstruction of Iraq," Chirac told reporters after meeting with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. He also confirmed that he would travel to Saint Petersburg on Friday and Saturday for talks on Iraq with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. France, Germany and Russia -- all...

United Nations chiefs have warned America and Britain today that Iraq is not a "treasure chest to be divvied up" after the war. UN under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor said the Allies had no rights under international law to engage in any kind of reconstruction or creation of government without the express consent of the Security Council. Secretary General Kofi Annan is expected to meet Tony Blair and other European leaders this week to hear what they will agree to on post-conflict Iraq. Mr Annan will be in "listening mode" but will not be advertising the UN's services for tackling Iraq,...

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 (Reuters) - Faced with rigid opposition from China, the U.N. Security Council's five major powers have failed to agree on a statement on the North Korean nuclear crisis to be issued after Wednesday's meeting, diplomats said on Tuesday. Instead, the 15-nation council may make only brief comments to the media after the meeting that will not deal in a substantive manner with the impasse over Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons program, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The United States has been pushing the council to issue a statement condemning Pyongyang for withdrawing from the...

OTTAWA — The United States may be the sole superpower in the world but that doesn't mean it's best suited to the lead the reconstruction of postwar Iraq, says Deputy Prime Minister John Manley. As he prepared to head for meetings Monday in Washington on security and the Canada-U.S. border, Manley suggested it's important for global stability that the rogue state be rebuilt as a sustainable democracy. And while Manley is careful to speak highly of Canada's largest trading partner, he said the U.S. likely isn't the best candidate to do that job. With the U.S.-led coalition in its third...

UNITED NATIONS: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called a meeting of the Security Council for Monday on Iraq, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Sunday. "This is an informal meeting that the council's 15 members are going to have in the morning with the secretary-general," a spokeswoman for the Mexican U.N. Mission told Reuters. Mexico holds the council presidency for April. The UN spokeswoman could give no reason for why Annan called the meeting, set to begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT).

PARIS, Apr 04, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia called for a swift ending to the U.S.-led war on Baghdad, and for an even swifter response to the humanitarian distress of the Iraqi people. "The faster this is over, the better for everyone, including the United States," said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the war, during a joint afternoon press conference in Paris. The ministers -- who endorsed a common statement demanding the United Nations assume a premier role in post-war Iraq, and warning neighboring countries not to take advantage of...

JAKARTA, Apr 5, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz stated that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) could be further developed to replace the United Nations (UN), since it has failed to keep the United States from waging war against Iraq, the national news agency Antara reported here Saturday. The United Nations "has failed to tackle the crisis in Iraq," noted Hamzah, who is also chairman of this country's largest political party, the United Development Party (PPP), during a meeting with his party's youth wing. He pointed out that the United Nations can no longer be trusted to...

PARIS, April 4 (KUNA) -- French, Russian and German Foreign Ministers met on Friday to discuss the situation in Iraq and to attempt to map out the role of the international community in the post-war reconstruction of that country. After a working lunch, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, speaking at a tripartite press conference, emphasized the Ministers concerns for the "urgent humanitarian situation" in Iraq and the need for early involvement of the United Nations to address the problem. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also voiced concern about the ongoing war and called for a rapid end to the...

April 5 2003 The neat files of a library in Baghdad reveal just how the city will meet the army now at its gates, writes Scott Ritter. There is a complex of buildings in downtown Baghdad - if it still exists after coalition bombing - that contains a dark secret unknown to, or ignored by, the US military when it developed the "Operation Iraqi Freedom" battle plans. Called the Al Bakr Institute for Higher Military Studies, it is the Iraqi version of the American War College and Army General Staff College rolled into one. As a chief weapons inspector for...

Kofi Annan 3 April United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he does not see any immediate prospect for a ceasefire in the war in Iraq. "I wish I could say there is an immediate prospect for a ceasefire, and that an appeal from the Security Council will lead to a ceasefire," Mr. Annan said in an interview yesterday with Al Jazeera television. "I don't think that is that case." He reiterated his view that "war is a human catastrophe, and in fact in war, all are losers." Questioned about the war's legitimacy, he noted that the Security Council...

Powell rules out UN lead role in rebuilding of Iraq By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels Colin Powell yesterday swept aside demands from European leaders for United Nations primacy in Iraq's post-war settlement, insisting that Britain and America had earned the right to set policy by sacrificing blood. Speaking at Nato headquarters during a day of 20 meetings with European foreign ministers and top officials, the US secretary of state said: "It was the coalition that came together on the difficult mission, at political expense, at expense of money and treasure, and the expense of lives as well. "When we succeed...

By William Alford April 3, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In word and deed the Left continues to demonstrate a sincere conviction that George W. Bush represents a substantially greater threat to their interests than does Saddam Hussein. Prior to the current conflict the Iraqi dictator had merely caused the death of thousands in two regional wars, killed thousands more of his own people by means of torture, summary executions and poison gas, and torched over 600 oil wells. Apparently, such atrocities are far more acceptable than the President of the United States having the temerity of subjecting his foreign policy to Congressional...

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 03, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a transcript released Thursday, said he sees no immediate prospect for a ceasefire in Iraq. In an interview Wednesday by the Qatari-based al-Jazeera television network, Annan said he did not think a Security Council appeal for a cease-fire would work. Copyright 2003 by United Press International.