Old Hand, Old Result
Benny Avni
March 5, 2007
New York Sun 
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/49809

In lieu of taking of action in Iraq, the United Nations has a host of functions in the country. It has a representative in Baghdad. It coordinates Iraq's foreign policy. It even searches for weapons of mass destruction. Is it a bird? A plane? No, it's a mirage in the desert.
On Friday, Secretary-General Ban appointed a man who is as much a part of the crumbling structure at Turtle Bay as the asbestos in the basement to be special adviser for the U.N.-led International Compact with Iraq. The appointment of Ibrahim Gambari means that the U.N. contribution to solving the Iraq conundrum will remain minimal. This is not necessarily bad news, as the United Nations does best when it does least. The secretary-general's choice suggests, however, that once again the United Nations' innate patronage system has foiled his declared intention to clean up the stables.
Mr. Gambari, a Nigerian and onetime top aide to Mr. Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan, immediately set off for Saudi Arabia, where King Abdullah and President Ahmadinejad of Iran met over the weekend.
Expect a lot of hot air in the next few weeks about regional Iraq diplomacy. Washington is looking for Riyadh and Tehran to come to a sort of détente on Lebanon and especially on Iraq, where the bloodshed continues as proxy armies clash.
It is unclear whether the Iranians, who control the Iraqi Shiite insurgents, or the Saudis, who have some ties to the Sunni jihadis, are ready to put a stop to those clashes. It is more likely that they will avert a civil war in Lebanon. If so, their accord may yield a fragile, short-lived agreement on Iraq, as well.
Israel is wary. In return for a mere declaration of the end of proxy fighting, Iran and Saudi Arabia could demand tangible Israeli giveaways to the Palestinian Arabs. And Iran will surely ask that the international pressure on its nuclear program be eased.
The participation of the United Nations in all of this, meanwhile, will be minimal. In the never-ending struggle between the old Turtle Bay and the shiny new United Nations that Mr. Ban says he wants to deliver, one battle was lost Friday, just as another was won.
The good news: Lynn Pascoe was sworn in as undersecretary-general for political affairs, becoming the first American to hold the job since the early days of the United Nations. Mr. Pascoe's diplomatic and political instincts have yet to be tested, but with his appointment, Mr. Ban signaled a readiness to confront the knee-jerk anti-Americanism that reigns at Turtle Bay.
The bad news: The man Mr. Pascoe is replacing, Mr. Gambari, is now the latest in a list of top U.N. denizens that Mr. Ban inherited and left intact.
Although he promised to rotate and enforce term limits for top U.N. executives, Mr. Ban found another U.N. job for a man who has served at the Secretariat since 1999, after a record 10 years as Nigeria's ambassador to the United Nations — a 17-year stint at Turtle Bay. A superb inside operator, Mr. Gambari has left a negligible footprint since his June 2005 appointment as political chief.
And this may well qualify him for the Iraqi job.
Ever since it lost 22 of its own in a Baghdad truck bombing in August 2003, including the star diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations has shied away from Iraq. The world body's overriding sentiment has been: America got itself in trouble. It should get out of it without us.
Just before leaving office last year, Mr. Annan cut down the U.N. Baghdad office even further, leaving a skeleton staff with dozens of Fijian troops defending it inside the American-controlled Green Zone. Special representative Ashraf Qazi of Pakistan, who heads the office, routinely issues statements but has little effect on Iraqi politics and policies.
To support him, last year the United Nations launched the International Compact with Iraq, an initiative of the government of Iraq for a new partnership with the international community, according to its Web site. The group met several times last fall, with few visible results.
Since the days of the oil-for-food scandal and weapons inspections, Iraqis' view of the United Nations has been less than stellar. Incidentally, the weapons inspection team, known as Unmovic, still exists. It has a 34-member staff that diligently produces quarterly reports about its search of Iraq for WMDs. Iraqi treasure finances this endless pursuit.