A reading of the last resolution of the UN Security Council, concerning terrorism in Iraq

H.E. Mr. Hayder S. Al-Barrak, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iraq to Bulgaria

The international community marked progress in the fight against terrorism after the UN Security Council, with an absolute consensus, recently adopted a resolution harshly condemning the terrorist acts Iraq was subjected to. This resolution is an important step in the struggle against terrorism not only in Iraq but on a global scale because it confirms that terror anywhere in the world is a threat to international peace and security.

A detailed reading of the resolution text reveals that in the international community a political conviction concerning the democratic changes in Iraq is taking shape. If we look at the events in the country since 2003 to the present day we will see that in the beginning some states had reservation to and even opposed the adoption of similar resolutions. The subsequent twist in the position of these countries regarding Iraq reflects above all the positive changes inside the country. After the establishment of a Transitional Governing Council in 2003, the first sovereign government was formed following resolution 1564 of the UN Security Council, adopted on June 8, 2004, and in compliance with it the foreign troops in Iraq were renamed from occupation forces to multi-national forces. The above-mentioned resolution also enhanced the carrying out of free and democratic elections, followed by the formation of a parliament which in its turn voted confidence to the current government. Then the efforts were focused on drafting the first constitution of the new Iraq.

The seriousness with which the new government is working on the drafting of the country’s constitution, as well as the results achieved in the other spheres, stimulated the international community to adopt the last resolution, which is a sign of the positive twist in UN’s attitude to the events in Iraq. If we compare the resolutions of the Security Council in this respect from August 1990 till the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime with the ones adopted after the liberation of Iraq, we will get a complete picture of the above-mentioned processes.

The first group of resolutions (1999–2003) was against the expansive and aggressive policy of the former regime, which led to catastrophic disasters for Iraq and other countries in the region. As far as the resolutions adopted in 2003 and afterwards are concerned, there is a gradual transition toward a positive stand on the events in Iraq. An in-depth reading of the last resolution 1918 of August 4, 2005, shows that the representatives of the international community have conceived a firm confidence in the rightness of the democratic changes presently taking place in Iraq. The international community supports unreservedly the policy pursued by the Iraqi government and sees the need for solidarity with Iraq’s fight against terrorism.

Here are some of the facts that can be drawn from the resolution in question: