UN extends mandate of UN mission in Iraq for a year

UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council on Thursday extended by a year the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and urged that country’s leaders to speed up formation of an inclusive government.

The 15-member body unanimously adopted a resolution, sponsored by the United States, Britain, Japan and Turkey, extending the mandate of UNAMI, which expires Saturday, until July 31 2011. It expressed its intention to review the mandate “in 12 months or sooner, if requested by the government of Iraq.”

As UN chief Ban Ki-moon did Wednesday, the council also appealed to Iraq’s bickering leaders to quickly form a government “that represents the will and sovereignty of the Iraqi people and their hope for a strong, independent, unified and democratic Iraq” in the wake of the March parliamentary elections. Ex-premier Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc finished first in the March 7 polls with 91 seats in the 325-member parliament, with PM Maliki’s State of Law alliance winning 89.

Both, however, fell short of a parliamentary majority, and negotiations over assembling a coalition with other parties appear to have stalled. The lingering political deadlock coincides with an upsurge of extremist violence, with a total of 42 people killed Tuesday, just days after government ministries said more people died in unrest in July than in any month since May 2008. afp

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