By Xinhua
Beijing : A coalition of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals appealed Wednesday to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Cairo to allow the United Nations to take control of Iraq in a move they say would help U.S. troops leave the beleaguered country.
Both the U.S. administration and the Baghdad government are unlikely to endorse the request.
“We believe that the only opportunity left for Iraq to be saved from a dark, but not inevitable future, is to engage the international community represented by the United Nations,” the letter said. “Such a step will allow the American troops to leave and the occupation to be brought to its end.”
The group’s leaders include Adeeb al-Jadir, Ahmed Al-Haboubi and Nouri Abdel Razak Hussein, politicians overthrown in 1968 when Saddam Hussein’s Baath party came to power and long part of the liberal anti-regime opposition prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The U.N. dramatically curtailed its operations in Iraq after an August 2003 suicide attack killed its representative and scores of others. The United States has been pushing for an expanded U.N. role in Iraq but that did not include supervising the country.
The Iraqi group said the world body should supervise a new security plan to restore order during a transitional period and prepare for new elections of a government to replace Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet.
Representatives for the campaign will travel to the U.N. headquarters in New York to seek support from key members, said al-Haboubi, a former government minister.
The men said the petition was signed by dozens of Iraqi dignitaries and they had scores of supporters in Iraq who preferred to remain anonymous to avoid harassment.