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Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi and U.S. government officials rejected a request from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to reconsider attacking insurgents in the city of Fallujah to help ensure successful elections in January.
Annan said in a letter this week to U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi a Fallujah attack would hurt the chances of Sunni Muslim participation in election of a national assembly, Iraqi Deputy Ambassador Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi said.
``This letter is not helpful,'' al-Istrabadi said in an interview in New York. ``It came as a surprise to me that the UN felt able to assess the domestic situation in Iraq, given its failure to play a vital role, as contemplated by Security Council resolutions.''
More than 35,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops massed outside Fallujah after a night of American bombing, as Allawi signaled time was running out for fighters within the insurgent stronghold. Fallujah has become the focus of U.S.-led military efforts to subdue insurgents in the so-called Sunni Triangle who threaten to disrupt the elections.
``The Iraqi government has made very clear that they do have a strategy for resolving the problems of these towns,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington. ``It's a strategy that has worked in some cases already, in Najaf and Samarra, of reaching out politically to local leaders, of reasserting Iraqi government control, and of moving militarily where that needs to be done.''
Sunni Voters
UN Under-Secretary-General Kieran Prendergast, while telling reporters the world body will soon increase the number of workers in Baghdad, said Annan wrote the letter because he is worried about getting Sunni participation in the elections.
``We would hope that elections would have the effect of promoting stability in Iraq,'' Prendergast said. ``Therefore, our assumption is that elections should be such as to produce the broadest possible range of inclusion of Iraqi constituencies. If that is accepted, then everything must be done to broaden the base of support for elections.''
Prendergast said he expects Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the southern part of the country to participate in ``high percentages'' in the elections. So increasing Sunni participation is now the principle goal, according to Prendergast, who said the UN would support efforts to engage the most radical elements of the insurgency.
Al-Istrabadi, who said Iraqi Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaidaie is seeking a meeting with Annan to protest the letter, rejected the idea of negotiating with the Fallujah insurgents.
Old West
``The UN has failed to take into account that the government of Iraq has been, for a number of months, involved in attempts to negotiate a solution to these problems,'' Al-Istrabadi said. ``These groups have been unwilling to join the political process, and they cannot be allowed to run roughshod over the civilian population as though this were the Old West. It is an intolerable situation.''
Annan until today refused to increase the number of UN workers in Iraq beyond 35, including 10 electoral workers, a ceiling determined by threats to humanitarian aid workers in Iraq and the Aug. 19, 2003, bombing of the UN's Baghdad headquarters, which killed 22 workers.
Carina Perelli, head of the UN's electoral division, said 85 percent of food distribution centers in Iraq have been registering voters since Monday and that 6,000 Iraqis have been trained to staff the centers. She said the only problems are in Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, and with an electoral education program that, while late in starting, is due to begin next week.
Perelli said seven lists of 275 national assembly candidates have been submitted and that at least another 180 are expected.
The UN doubts the feasibility of interim government plans to register up to 4 million Iraqis living outside the country, in part because the cost could reach $90 per voter, compared with about $25 inside Iraqi, Perelli said.
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