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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Iraq, October 12, 2004'MULTILATERALISM THE BEST SOLUTION', Interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, October 12, 2004. SERGEI LAVROV: On Iraq, we have a timetable for elections by the end of January next year. We also see a spiral of violence - attacks, killings and air raids. Do you see Iraq as a problem that will be around for a long time to come? I think so. After the war was declared over and the Security Council was asked to help stabilize Iraq, we were ready to do this. All those countries that believed and still believe that the war was unjustified participated in the negotiations about the role the United Nations could have in the process. Not all of our concerns were taken into account. Eventually, the Security Council did adopt quite a good resolution, I would say, last June. But, our preference was to form the provisional government, which would be preceded by a national gathering of all Iraqis, including the opposition; with the support of the neighbors, members of the Security Council and the Arab League. That's what we called an international conference on Iraq, similar to the one on Afghanistan held in Bonn, which set the stage for the current political process in Afghanistan. We believe that the creation of an interim government on the basis of such national dialogue... could stabilize the situation better than just having some sort of process, which was not very transparent and the list of people that emerged was then just brought to the Security Council. We want the current interim government to succeed, but we do believe that even now the need for a national dialogue, national consensus is as acute as ever. We do think that it is not too late to organize a meeting, which would promote national consensus and help the interim government to start a dialogue with the opposition, especially on issues related to preparation for the elections. There is some understanding of this need and the idea of an international conference with approximately this agenda is gaining ground and it might take place before the end of November. But, a lot of people believe that the presence of foreign troops is the real problem and as long as these troops remain present the situation in Iraq is not going to stabilize. The foreign troops presence, again, was endorsed by the Security Council as an interim measure for as long as the Government of Iraq reaffirms that they want these troops to be there. In any case, the resolution of the Security Council provides for a review of the situation early next year. Again, I believe, that more the efforts we all make to make sure that the opposition is involved in the political process, the greater chances we have that the violence would decrease and the day when the foreign troops, the multinational force, could leave Iraq, would become close. Source: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.russianembassy.org. © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |