LA Times:U.N. Envoy Says Iraq Is a 'Mess' [View All]

In an article published in a Dutch newspaper Saturday, U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said bluntly, "It is a mess in Iraq." Asked whether it was possible to hold elections under current conditions, Brahimi said, "If the circumstances stay as they are, I don't think so," according to a Reuters report on the article.


An election in which Sunnis were not well represented would probably fuel the insurgency and endanger the rights of minorities because there would be proportionately fewer voices from minority groups in the transitional assembly that would oversee the writing of a new constitution for the country.

Brahimi was careful to leave the door open to proceeding with the election and called on the international community and the Americans "to help clean up this mess. If you let it deteriorate, the situation will become even more dangerous." Robert Callahan, a spokesman in Baghdad for U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, said Brahimi's comments "are not going to sway us."

But Callahan minimized differences with Brahimi, noting that U.S. officials would agree that three of the 18 provinces were troubled areas, "but we think we can improve the situation…. We have two months to improve the security situation." The reality on the ground, however, raises serious questions about the ability of the U.S. military to defeat the insurgency in seven weeks.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq5dec05,1,4285455.story?coll=la-headlines-worl