Iraq is nearly in civil war and could fall into civil war unless urgent steps are taken to prevent this, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday in a rare comment on the situation in Iraq.
”Given the developments on the ground, unless something is done drastically and urgently to arrest the deteriorating situation, we could be there. In fact we are almost there,” Annan told reporters in response to a question.
The UN has been playing only a minor role in Iraq since the truck-bombing of its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003 in an attack that killed 22 people including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN mission chief in the country.
Annan, whose second five-year term as secretary general runs out at the end of the year, has previously made waves by stating in December 2004 that the US-led invasion of Iraq was illegal as it was not approved by the UN Security Council.
Apart from regularly appealing for an end to violence in Iraq, he said in mid-September that civil war was possible in Iraq ”if current patterns of alienation and violence persist much longer” and that Middle East leaders were divided over whether the multinational force in Iraq should pull out or stay. — Reuters