By Xinhua,
United Nations : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that more needs to be done to help Iraqi communities resolve the fundamental issues that divide them.
In his latest report to the Security Council on the UN Mission in Iraq, Ban noted that some initial steps towards national reconciliation in Iraq have begun.
He said that the Iraqi government “continues to face formidable challenges to reaching a national consensus on how to share power and resources.”
But he noted that new legislation, including the Justice and Accountability Law, which replaced earlier policies banning former members of the Baath party from public office, represents a compromise between the interests of the country’s three main parliamentary blocks.
Ban urged Iraqi leaders to pursue “the Iraqi national interest, rather than individual, party, ethnic or sectarian interests.”
He said he believes that the holding of credible governorate elections later this year, as mandated by recent legislation, could in the long run serve to underpin the legitimacy of democratic governance.
The secretary-general said that the end of fighting in Basra and other places at the end of March was made possible by compromise and agreement, and he urged all concerned to do everything possible to maintain the current decrease in violent conflict and to avoid any provocative acts that could serve to undermine it.
The Security Council is scheduled to discuss the report next Monday, in an open debate where Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe will present the report.