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'The circumstances will require us at some point in the near future to have a new United Nations Security Council resolution', British Prime Minister Tony Blair, April 15

'Press Encounter with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan', New York, April 15, 2004.

Prime Minister: Good evening. First of all I would like to say how pleased I am at this chance of meeting the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in advance of the meeting I have tomorrow in Washington with President Bush. If I may start by paying tribute to the leadership of Kofi Annan at what has been a very difficult time in international affairs and I think he has handled the issues with not just tremendous skill but immense determination and bravery too. And I would like to pay particular tribute to the work he has done in respect of Cyprus, where I believe thanks to his efforts and the efforts of his representatives there has been the best chance that we will have for a generation of progress in Cyprus and that is very much down to him and his personal commitment.

We discussed, of course, the situation in Iraq. I welcome very much the efforts that have been made by Mr Brahimi on behalf of the United Nations to find the right way forward, the right political way forward. The circumstances will require us at some point in the near future to have a new United Nations Security Council resolution that will allow us to plan this way forward of political transition in Iraq and there is of course absolute agreement, I think virtually across the international community, about what we want to see in Iraq and that is a stable and prosperous and democratic Iraq governed by the Iraqi people, a sovereign state whose wealth is the wealth of the Iraqi people and whose government is the government of the Iraqi people. And how we get there is obviously the difficult issue particularly with security at the moment. But our determination to get there remains undimmed. We have to stand firm. We have to make sure that we give the Iraqis the opportunity that they seek.

We also obviously discussed the issue to do with the Middle East. And I would like to say that I think it is important that we ensure that the initiative that has been taken over the past couple of days leads to a real sense of movement and change there in the Middle East and I do not personally see that in any way displacing the Roadmap. On the contrary, I think the Roadmap is and remains the right way forward for the resolution of the Middle East peace process and we certainly strongly support it. In addition to those things I would like also to make mention of the UN Panel on the changes and challenges facing the UN that the Secretary-General established last November and to say how strongly we support the work of that Panel and I hope to see that report. In December?

Secretary-General: That' right.

PM: And I think that will also help us establish an agenda for the role that is also tackling issues to do with security but is also about issues to do with justice and hope for people who are presently without it in our world. I think that is all I need to say by way of introduction.

SG: Thank you very much Mr Prime Minister for your support and very kind words. Let me say that I do share your view that we are all united in trying to support Iraq establish a stable and democratic Iraq. Mr Brahimi, my envoy, who has just left Iraq today has been working very hard with Iraqi political groups and stakeholders in preparing and trying to assist them in defining a proper political transition that will lead to the formation of a government on 30th June. It has not been easy but of course we are determined to do whatever we can to help. In addition to that you may know that we have an electoral team also in Iraq working with Iraqis, preparing for the national elections that are going to be in January.

On Cyprus, I want to thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister, for your words but also for the strong support that we have received from the United Kingdom and also from the European Union. The issue is now in the hands of the people and I hope they will seize the opportunity to reunify their country and enter the European Union together.

If I may say a further word about Iraq. I think that when Mr Brahimi comes back to report on his findings we will be able to review his recommendations as well as with the Security Council and decide what the next steps will be. But I do agree with you that this resolution may be necessary as we move forward and given the fact that all the Member States realise the stability of Iraq is in everyone' interest I do hope that we will get the full cooperation of all the Member States.

We also did talk about Sudan and the need for the international community to do as much as we can to help them deal with the situation in Darfur and I share with the Prime Minister my intention and plans of sending a mission to that region early next week led by Mr Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. And now we will take your questions.

Q: I wonder if I can ask first whether you both if you agree with what President Bush said this week that the action taken in Iraq had made the world and America a safer place and would the counter-argument be that even if you set aside differences in what is happening in Iraq that Europe and the United States are still at loggerheads as was pointed out with the alleged message from Osama Bin Laden today.

PM: I don' think we need Osama Bin Laden to start telling us how to handle our political affairs. I think whatever disagreements there have been about the wisdom of our action in Iraq, and I happen to believe it' right for the reasons that I' given, it is in everybody' interest now to see Iraq become a stable and democratic state. And on the one side you' got everyone, ourselves, the United Nations, all the other countries involved and the vast majority of Iraqi people trying to make sure we get a proper political transition in place so that Iraq is then run by the Iraqi people for the Iraqi people. And on the other side, you have groups of fanatics or terrorists or people who want to return Iraq to the old ways. And so, in the end, yes, of course it' difficult and it was never going to be easy to do this but the best guarantee of future security is that we succeed in Iraq. And that we create in Iraq the stable, democratic country I am sure the majority of its people want to see. And, I entirely agree also with the Secretary-General, in a sense we can help in this process - we can, the United Nations can. But the Iraqi people obviously too will want to take the responsibility for making sure that they can help this process of change come about.

Q: What are your thoughts?

SG: Obviously the war in Iraq did introduce major divisions in the international community which is beginning to heal. And I think now we have a common objective of doing whatever we can to ensure that there is stability and peace in Iraq. On the question of whether the world is safer today than it was a year ago, obviously we are living in a very difficult world and we are seeing heightened terrorist attacks which affects all of us and we need to come together and pool our efforts to deal with them. And on Iraq, as I have said earlier and the Prime Minister has reaffirmed, we all need to pool our efforts to make it work because we cannot afford to fail in Iraq.

Q: On the two issues we are discussing. One, with Iraq, is it a case now of waiting for Mr Brahimi to get back with his proposals or do you have alternatives of your own or with President Bush that you want to put forward? And on the Middle East peace process, do you feel any sense of being personally let down that President Bush has actually sidelined the Roadmap to peace and actually that seems to be very much on the sidelines now [inaudible]?

PM: In respect of the first thing obviously we are in dialogue with the United Nations and Mr Brahimi has been in dialogue with the Iraqi groups and people in Iraq itself and we will just work that through. I think from what I know of the discussions that have taken place that we are very much all working on the same lines, because in the end we want the same thing, we want a broad-based Iraqi government and we want an Iraqi government that is an Iraqi government representative of the Iraqi people, not a dictatorship, not some fanatical government that is going to threaten the security of the Iraqi people and the rest of the world.

In respect of the Roadmap I think there is a confusion here. I don' see the Roadmap as sidelined at all I' afraid. Until we manage to get in place the basic elements of security so that we can then start, if you like, a cooperative, bilateral approach that the Roadmap sets out, then inevitably we are going to be looking for other things that can in the meantime allow us to make some progress. I will obviously talk a bit more about this tomorrow at our press conference with the President but I don' think we should ignore the fact that if it is the case that the Israelis, albeit unilaterally, disengage from a significant part of the West Bank and from the Gaza, well that is quite a big change. Whatever differences people have, let' not ignore that and let us use that as the means then of getting back into a proper negotiated series of moves that take us back through the Roadmap to the two State solution. Because, after all, that is what everyone wants to see.

SG: I think on the Middle East I believe that any initiative that is taking to influence this relationship should not preclude the future status issues which have to be settled between the parties and if what is being done is done in the context of the Quartet' Roadmap and the attempt of the international community to establish two States that is fine. The withdrawal from Gaza should be seen as a first step because we also have to deal with the issue of the West Bank and I would hope that what has happened does not foreclose the movement ahead and working through the Roadmap and ensuring that two States living in peace side by side, Israel and Palestine is established.

Q: Surely one of the reasons you are coming here to talk with President Bush is that you may have some differences of emphasis or focus on the political and military aspects of the engagement in Iraq and I am wondering if you can share some of those concerns that you will be talking about with President Bush.

PM: We' one common aim and purpose but we can talk about this more tomorrow. But we' one very clear, common aim and purpose.

Q: Over and above the common aim and purpose?

PM: The common aim and purpose is what is crucial and of course we have to take steps to maintain order. But we are maintaining order, and this is the point that I want to make to you, the reason why we are maintaining order is so that a political process that allows the Iraqi people to be governed democratically can take root. And that' the choice for the future for Iraq. It can either go back to the days that it was in under Saddam when, as you know, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, there was no democracy, there were no human rights, there was no proper judicial process. Or alternatively, we can make sure that we provide the security through which Iraq can make the transition to a different kind of country. And of course these issues of security are going to be there. When people are killing innocent civilians you' got to deal with that. But the aim of what we are doing is not to suppress the local population but, on the contrary, to allow the vast majority of Iraqis who want to live in peace and security in a democratic environment to do so. We will see you all tomorrow.

Source: UN News Center, http://www.un.org.

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