Iraq envoy is UN's "Mr. Fix-It"
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Often at odds, the United States and the United Nations (news - web sites) agree on at least one thing -- that Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's "Mr. Fix-It," is the best hope for creating a viable political future in Iraq (news - web sites).
AFP/File Photo
Brahimi has earned his reputation as a diplomatic troubleshooter, crafting the Taef accord that ended the civil war in Lebanon and overseeing a national conference to agree on Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s new constitution.
The 70-year-old Algerian former foreign minister now faces a monumental task in hammering out a consensus on the caretaker government in Iraq, which is due to take over from the US-led occupation on June 30.
US President George W. Bush (news - web sites), who said before the war to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) that the world body was on the verge of becoming irrelevant, has welcomed Brahimi's work in helping to smooth over US troubles in Iraq.
"He's identified a way forward to establishing an interim government that is broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people," Bush said two weeks ago.
The respected Arab negotiator has a diplomatic history that goes back to the 1950s, when Brahimi was a representative of the Algerian National Liberation Front that was fighting for independence from France.
His successes in trouble spots such as Lebanon have won him the respect of many in the Arab world and elsewhere, and delivered the kind of credibility that few other diplomats can match.
Brahimi boldly washed his hands of Afghanistan when he was upset with how the negotiations were going, but was later welcomed back into a role widely seen as having saved the day.
After objecting to US plans for the June 30 handover, Iraq's Shiite Muslim spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, relented after Brahimi said national elections before then were impossible.
Known as a wily negotiator who rarely reveals his hand, Brahimi nevertheless showed again last week that he is unafraid to be tough, blasting Israel as a "poison in the region" that was making the Iraq talks more difficult.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)'s spokesman was forced to back away from the remarks, saying they did not represent the thinking of the UN chief but were only an expression of Brahimi's personal opinion.
Israel sent a formal letter of protest to Annan but, undaunted, Brahimi has refused to back down.
"What I said was that Israel's policies, not Israel itself, were a poison for the region, and that is the view of everybody in the region and beyond," he said when questioned by reporters. "That is a fact, not an opinion."
His comments were seen as a tactic to strengthen his hand in a region where anti-Israeli sentiment is often a useful ploy to gain political credibility.
With the United States in need of his help in Iraq, even US officials have declined to take him to task over his criticisms of Washington's great ally.
"Brahimi's comments are nothing new to us," a US official who asked not to be named told AFP.
"The difference this time is that it's actually coming from somebody who's got credibility in the eyes of the State Department and the White House."
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