The United Nations has tiptoed back into Iraq and the good graces of the Bush White House. These surprising developments are worth two cheers and one big, ominous question mark.
It is hard not to be impressed by the skill and audacity that led to a secretive six-day mission to Iraq last week by Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat who is Secretary General Kofi Annan's top troubleshooter. Getting the 70-year-old Arab nationalist to go to occupied Iraq required intense White House wooing, including two sessions with President Bush.
The imperatives that drove Bush's interest were more immediate than repairing relations with the United Nations, though that was seen as a bonus. Brahimi, it was hoped, had the credibility and standing to get through to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The reclusive Shiite religious leader disrupted the administration's original transition plans by demanding direct elections before the promised June 30 transfer of sovereignty.
Bush is pressing aides to make sure that the sovereignty deadline is met even if other details of the transition plan have to be altered. Sistani's still-vague indications that he would accept a U.N. recommendation to hold elections later than June 30 triggered the administration's new outreach to Annan and his U.N. staff in January.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49529-2004Feb17.html