Annan: Iraq's insurgency 'foreseeable'
UN secretary general allays fears over military action against syria

November 09, 2005
Lebanon Daily Star 
Original Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=19898 
 
Iraq's bloody insurgency was inevitable following the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who also tried to calm regional fears over possible military action against Syria. 
In Iraq, gunmen killed a second defense lawyer acting in Saddam Hussein's trial on Tuesday, renewing questions over whether the former president can get a fair trial amid Iraq's daily violence. 
In a speech at the American University in Cairo, Annan said: Opinions among Iraqis differed widely, as they still do, about the reasons for the foreign military presence in their country. He added: It was foreseeable that some would choose to resist by force of arms. 
Annan, who arrived in Cairo on Monday to kickoff a Mideast tour, earlier met Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa for talks on Iraq, Syria and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. 
He cast doubt that Syria could face an Iraq-style invasion over claims it was not cooperating with a UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hairi and not doing enough to stop militants entering Iraq. 
I hope nobody is thinking of going in that direction. No-one in the Security Council is thinking in those terms and as I have indicated, he said. 
And I think we have enough problems in the region not to open other fronts, Annan added. 
We must resolve, as United Nations resolutions have repeatedly urged, to make the Middle East a region where all nations, including Israelis and Palestinians, can live side by side in peace and justice, Annan said in his university speech. 
Annan used his speech to mourn Nadia Younis and Jean-Selim Kanaan, two Egyptian UN employees who were among the 22 people killed in the August 19, 2003, suicide attack on the UN's Baghdad headquarters. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the bombing. 
In his talks with Moussa, Annan praised Arab League efforts to organize the reconciliation conference of Iraq's Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish communities. 
The need for reconciliation in Iraq is real. If we do not reconcile the parties in Iraq, elections alone is not going to resolve their problems. 
A top official from Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's political party said that a meeting to prepare for the broad-based conference would take place in Cairo on November 19. 
The goal is to organize a conference early next year after a 
new government takes office following the December elections, said Jawad al-Maliki, deputy leader of the Daawa party, following talks with Arab League assistant secretary general Ahmad bin Helli.