A big blast almost rocked Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s residence in the heavily fortified ‘Green Zone’ and sent tremors down the spine of Mr Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, as he was engaged in a news conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister.
Mr Ban is on a 11-day tour of the middle east and this was the first Baghdad visit by a UN Secretary General since the visit by Kofi Annan in November 2005.
Moments after Mr Ban indicated the press conference about a boost in the UN presence in Iraq because of improved security, a Katyusha rocket landed just 50m from the venue resulting in a powerful blast that rocked the conference venue.
The UN Secretary General urged the Iraqi government to launch an all-inclusive political process for reconciliation of Iraq’s warring sects. The main discussion of the conference was the recent five-year plan that was launched last week and is looked upon as a ‘tool for unlocking Iraq’s own potential’.
But the recent blast was a clear indication that the plan was not favoured by the warring Iraq. Prior to this, a terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August 2003 killed 22 people, including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
These two blasts had one thing in common and that is the UN presence. And recent UN policies regarding Iraq has always been subjected to a suspicious stand by a large majority of Iraq especially by the sunni sector.
So it is not going to be an easy task for the United Nation to pacify the over-heated situation in Iraq.
