Middle East.

On 24 August 2004, in his first visit to the country since his appointment, the top UN envoy for Iraq, Secretary-General's Special Representative Ashraf Qazi discussed the United Nations role in reconstruction and development efforts with senior officials of the Interim Government. Mr. Qazi and Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafez of Iraq focused their discussions on reconstruction efforts in cities like Najaf and Al-Sadr in Baghdad, the scene of fierce fighting.

"Unemployment and poverty lead to the proliferation of crime and terrorism", Mr. al-Hafez said. They also discussed the Government's development priorities, with the Iraqi Minister calling for an active UN role in his country's reconstruction and rehabilitation programme, as well as in the transitional political process. Minister of State Kassim Daoud also attended the meeting. Mr. Qazi pledged the full support of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), security circumstances permitting, to help the Iraqi people, in cooperation with the Interim Government.

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With the Mission's deployment, the UN presence in that country has been reestablished. However, a light footprint was unavoidable in the current security situation, Mr Qazi told the Security Council on 14 September. He said security had to be a paramount concern to the United Nations. Two days earlier, the Council unanimously renewed UNAMI for a further year. The Mission's tasks include coordinating various humanitarian operations and helping the war-ravaged country to organize elections by the end of January 2005 and draft a new constitution. Reaffirming that the United Nations should play a leading role in assisting the Iraqi Government and people in the formation of institutions for a representative government, the Council said that it would review the UNAMI mandate in twelve months or sooner, if requested by the Government. The Mission was initially established by the Security Council on 14 August 2003, when Mr. Annan called for it to have a staff, both international and local, of over 300. On 19 August 2003, a terrorist bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad took the lives of 22 persons, including the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded over 100.

Due to the security situation, international staff working for the United Nations in Iraq were "operating at the outer limit of acceptable and prudent risk", and the ceiling of UN international substantive support and security staff remained at 35, Mr. Annan said in report of 3 September 2004. The report warned that the UN presence on the ground would remain limited and security would be a "primary obstacle and constraint". While pledging to "do everything possible, as circumstances permit, to support Iraqi efforts in the political and economic reconstruction of their country", the Secretary-General said that no country had yet committed to providing any security staff for UN workers there. However, the Interim Government of Iraq had taken a number of positive initial steps since its formation in June 2004 to start rebuilding the country.

With an eye to the upcoming elections in Lebanon, the Security Council on 2 September adopted a resolution, by a vote of 9 in favour, with 6 abstentions, declaring support for polling free of outside influence and calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the disbanding of all militias and the extension of Government control over the entire country. The measure, introduced by France and the United States and garnering the minimum support required for passage, drew opposition from Foreign Minister Mohamad Issa of Lebanon. Addressing the Council, he disputed the basis of the resolution, saying Israel's occupation had prompted a national resistance that was used where and when needed.

Voicing alarm at the humanitarian crisis created by the activitiy of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and strongly condemning the terrorist acts of Palestinian suicide bombers against Israeli civilians, the Secretary-General on 13 September called for prompt implementation of the Road Map Peace Plan. "Otherwise, both sides will face the grim reality of a never-ending stalemate and continued violence", he told the International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian people at UN Headquarters in New York. Both Palestinian and Israeli NGOs took part in the two-day meeting.

According to a United Nations briefing on the Middle East on 11 August, both Israelis and Palestinians are undermining prospects for peace, with the former failing to end the settlement expansion and carrying out collective punishment, and the latter failing to end violence and combat terror; civilians on both sides have been suffering. "For each side to cite the actions of the other does not in any way excuse it from fulfilling its own obligations", UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast told the Council, in what he called a "depressingly familiar" monthly briefing that reported no tangible progress towards resuming the peace process.