Following its return to the country a year after the US-led invasion, the UN's actions in Iraq have been a catalogue of disappointments, argues Mokhtar Lamani* From the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 onwards, the United Nations was deliberately bypassed by the Americans, dealing a fatal blow to one of the foundations of the international order: multilateralism. Until the invasion, this principle was considered the only guarantee of the collective responsibility to maintain international peace and security. However, the former US administration not only contented itself with marginalising the UN during its military intervention in Iraq, but it also refused to entrust the UN with any management role in the post-war environment in the country. The administration's unfortunate, not to say catastrophic, management of the situation ultimately pushed it to change course and to give a small role to the UN in the face of severe problems and complications encountered on the ground, though one that was well aligned with American interests. This policy change was another example of Winston Churchill's famous quip that the US "can always be counted on to do the right thing... after they have exhausted all other possibilities." Long lost was the ideal, enunciated in the Charter of the United Nations, to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". While the UN returned to Iraq in 2004, its activities there have yielded only meagre and for the most part insignificant results, whether in the performance of its political role in achieving national reconciliation amongst Iraqis, or in its socio- economic and humanitarian role in the reconstruction of a country devastated by war and years of sanctions. The United Nations has not had an impact that could strengthen its credibility and hence that of multilateral action in this most fragile of regions. The various Security Council resolutions regarding the mandate of the UN in Iraq have only brought into question their relevance, effectiveness and feasibility. Following its return to the country, the UN mission was also much more concerned with helping the former American administration than with pursuing as its ultimate objective giving assistance to the Iraqi people in re-establishing themselves after long and painful suffering. It is for these reasons that the UN's actions, from the "International Compact with Iraq" to those related to the question of Kirkuk, have been stinging examples of the organisation's failure to garner support, ultimately alienating all parties. It is also most regrettable that this intolerable void in assistance to Iraqis has not been filled by the other regional organisations of which Iraq is a member. First among these is the Arab League, whose members have lacked serious vision in honouring their agreements with Iraq, even as the organisation's secretary-general has loudly proclaimed to the media that he was the first to decide to open a mission in Baghdad. That mission will continue despite the resignations of the first two ambassadors sent to the country, the first, myself, out of frustration, and the second, named two years later, for health reasons. The secretary- general has intentionally refrained from mentioning the reasons for those frustrations, and he has deliberately ignored his own responsibility. It is reasonable to ask whether the Arab League mission that was established in Baghdad in April 2006 will now tackle the implementation of a Marshall Plan in Iraq after what the organisation's secretary-general has called the "brilliant achievement of national reconciliation." As for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), it is in keeping with this organisation's folkloric traditions that it would have us believe that it is thanks to its tireless efforts and its "outstanding Mecca document" that sectarian war in Iraq has not taken place. The French novelist Honoré de Balzac once said that "illusion is just disproportionate faith". But what if the illusion is a wholly distorted one? * The writer is a senior visiting fellow at the CIGI -- Canada and former Arab League ambassador to Baghdad.
