UN Gears for Bigger Role in Iraq

New Baghdad office to open

By Jane Yager, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 23, 2007 6:22 AM CDT

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UN Gears for Bigger Role in Iraq — Ban Ki-moon, left, Secretary General of United Nations and Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, right, during a press conference after attending High-level meeting on Iraq at U.N. Headquarters in New York Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007. (AP Photo/David Karp) (Associated Press)

The United Nations plans to increase its presence in Iraq, but has serious concerns about the "unstable" security situation, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at a meeting in New York yesterday with Iraq's prime minister. The expanded UN mission would seek to stabilize Iraq by mediating sect rivalries, bolstering humanitarian aid, and encouraging cooperation with neighbors, the Guardian reports.

The UN dramatically reduced staff after a 2003 suicide bombing that killed 22 at its Baghdad headquarters. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday promised that Iraqi forces would ensure the safety of a new UN office, saying: "Baghdad of today is different from Baghdad of yesterday."

(More Iraq stories.)

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