It will be timely now as never before, he pointed out.
An all-Iraqi political dialogue, to involve the opposition, is now a sole way to build up Iraqi security. Preparations for an international conference are underway in compliance with a related United Nations Security Council resolution. There are ample chances to convene the conference in July.
As for NATO contributing to Iraqi security forces training, and multinational forces' participation in Iraqi settlement, it is necessary to bear in mind an understanding on those forces' status, which the Iraqi provisional administration and the coalition forces have not signed to this day.
As UN Security Council resolution No. 1546 has it, the multinational forces shall be responsible for security, and work in close team with the Iraqi provisional government, which must have a say in decision-making on what those forces will do.
An explicit idea is absent to this day on how this Security Council premise will be reworded in the legal idiom of a forces status agreement between the coalition forces and the provisional government. Now that Iraq has regained sovereignty, and the said agreement is still absent, a legal void has emerged. It is extremely undesirable, considering current developments in Iraq, said the minister.
That was why Russia appealed, more than once, for an international conference to involve Iraqi political forces, the neighboring countries, and the UN Security Council member countries. Once at the conference table, the gathering has a chance to analyze the ways of promoting Iraqi efforts to draft a Constitution, arrange elections and finally set up a constitutional government, Mr. Lavrov went on.
All political groupings available in Iraq must be represented at theconference-a point on which he made special emphasis.
National accord alone can help to involve all Iraqis in the settlement cause, and move them to support the future government.
Iraq's neighbors must take part in settlement efforts-otherwise, the Iraqi government will not cope with all its overwhelming tasks.
Russia will certainly avoid involvement in Iraqi peacekeeping and army training. It was NATO who made a resolution on Iraqi army and security forces training. Russia was outside respective decision-making, and so is not a Party to those understandings, explained Sergei Lavrov.
There are no conditions for Russia taking part in peacekeeping, and that prospect is out of the question, either.
Nevertheless, Russia is willing to offer economic assistance, and is in contact with the Iraqi government for such aid.
There is no safety in Iraq whatsoever, so Russian experts had to flee after they spent many months in the country to rehabilitate its power industry. Some met a violent death in Iraq, and several were taken hostage.
Russia is presently in contact with the Iraqi interim government's Economy and Energy ministers.
"We certainly prefer peaceful ways of assisting that country," the Foreign Minister summed up the matter.
