Blair sees wider U.N. Iraq role
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair says a new United Nations Security Council resolution is needed to help ensure the creation of a stable and democratic government in Iraq.
Blair, the strongest supporter of U.S. President George W. Bush in the war in Iraq, spoke after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at U.N. headquarters in New York Thursday.
Blair said Britain was determined to see a transition to a stable, prosperous and sovereign Iraq state, and saw the United Nations playing a key role in this process.
Blair and Annan agreed that the focus in Iraq now had to be on bringing peace and stability to the country.
Annan said divisions within the international community over Iraq were now "beginning to heal."
"Obviously the war in Iraq did introduce major divisions in the international community, which is beginning to heal," Annan told reporters after his meeting with Blair.
"We all need to pool our efforts to make it work because we cannot afford to fail in Iraq. ... We are all united in trying to support the Iraqi people," he said.
Blair, who meets Bush at the White House Friday, said he shared Annan's view and declared that it was time the international community put aside "whatever disagreements there have been about the wisdom of our action in Iraq."
"It is in everybody's interest now to see Iraq become a stable and democratic state," he said. "The best guarantee of future security is that we succeed in Iraq."
He said the international community wants a broad-based Iraqi government that is "representative of the Iraqi people, not a dictatorship, not some fanatical government that's going to threaten the security of the Iraqi people and the rest of the world."
Blair said a Security Council resolution would likely be necessary to achieve those goals.
"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," Blair said.
"The aim of what we're 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."
On Wednesday, Lakhdar Brahimi, Annan's special adviser in Iraq, for the first time offered hints about the shape of the caretaker Iraqi government that will take charge from the June 30 handover of sovereignty until January, when elections are to be held for a transitional national assembly.
Brahimi said the government should be headed by a prime minister, a president, two vice-presidents and "men and women known for their honesty, integrity and competence."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday called Brahimi's proposal "very sound" but said more consultation with other parties was needed.
Annan said he was looking forward to hearing directly from Brahimi, and he applauded his envoy for working with various Iraqi groups to try to bring about the proper political transition.
"It has not been easy, but ... we are determined to do whatever we can to help," he said.
The U.N. secretary-general and Blair met on the same day that a new audiotape from Osama bin Laden was released. In it, the al Qaeda leader offers a "truce" to European countries if they pull their troops from Muslim lands -- an offer flatly rejected by Blair. (Full story)
"I don't think we need Osama bin Laden to start telling us how to handle our political affairs," he said.
