The UN is ending a historic mission to Iraq that dates from 2003, after the US invasion of the country.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) has been a mainstay in Iraq for two decades. Now it is closing its doors, as its mandate ends at the end of this year.
“The UN Security Council, at Iraq’s request, voted last year to wind down the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) by the end of 2025,” Saudi Arabia-based newspaper Arab News reported Sunday. “The mission was set up to coordinate post-conflict humanitarian and reconstruction efforts and help restore a representative government in the country.”
This is an important development in some ways. The mission doesn’t necessarily do so much, but it has been a voice in Iraq, condemning attacks by Iranian-backed militias at times and making other statements.
UNAMI doesn’t single out Iran, but its statements reinforce the international spotlight on Iraq’s instability.
Decades of dictatorship, wars, and terrorism
“United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in Baghdad on Saturday to mark the end of the political mission set up in 2003 following the US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein,” Arab News reported.
Iraq recently had elections. Prime Minister Shia Al-Sudani, who will remain in office until a new person is chosen based on the election results, has
thanked the UN for its mission.
Iraq “has suffered for decades from dictatorship, wars, and terrorism,” he said in a joint statement with Guterres.
Iraq is now self-reliant, Sudani said, adding that it has “emerged victorious thanks to the sacrifices and courage of its people.”
The UN will get a street named after it for its work in Iraq. The ceremony will also commemorate the 22 UN staff members murdered in a terrorist attack in August 2003.
Guterres praised “the courage, fortitude, and determination of the Iraqi people,” Arab News reported.
“Iraqis have worked to overcome decades of violence, oppression, war, terrorism, sectarianism, and foreign interference,” he said, adding that Iraq “is now a normal country, and relations between the UN and Iraq will become normal relations with the end of UNAMI.”
The news comes as former Iraqi president Barham Salih appears set to be the next UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He has played an important role in Iraq and in the autonomous Kurdistan Region or northern Iraq, where he is from.
Salih was also a key academic leader in the Kurdistan Region. He is viewed generally positively in Iraq and for his various past roles.