Pachachi — an asset to Iraq's Governing Council, Walid M. Sadi

Opinion, July 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Pachachi — an asset to Iraq's Governing Council

Walid M. Sadi

Jordan Times, Sunday, July 27, 2003

NO MATTER what one may think of the interim Governing Council of Iraq, the fact that former Iraqi Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi is a member tilts the vote of confidence in its favour. True, it would have been better if the members had been directly elected by the Iraqi people, but under the prevailing conditions this could not be done. I first met Pachachi in the late 1960s in New York. He was then the Iraqi ambassador to the UN. I was a junior Jordanian diplomat on my first assignment abroad. It was easy to discern, right from the start, that Pachachi was a distinguished statesman, a scholar and, above all, a rational being. That was when the Arab world was about to enter the 1967 war with Israel, and the atmosphere was obviously overcharged with emotions and self-confidence about the ability of the Arab countries surrounding Israel to deal Israel a devastating defeat. Of all the Arab ambassadors in New York, Pachachi was the sole voice who counselled restraint in the Arab rhetoric and used reason to arrive at his judgements. Yet, the war of 1967 seemed to have changed Pachachi temporarily and he also became a faithful disciple of the call for continuation of the battle against Israel even after the defeat of the Arab armies in the few days following the outbreak of the Israeli aggression against the neighbouring Arab countries.

Those were the days when the Arab ambassadors at the UN were offered by the then US ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg, a deal immediately after the declaration of a ceasefire, a deal of their lives that they would live to regret for turning down. Goldberg offered the Arab missions at the UN the return to status quo ante, conditioned on the lifting of the Egyptian blockade of the straits that lead to Eilat. Much to my consternation and amazement, Pachachi, and for the first time ever, joined the Arab chorus that rejected that offer.

Those were the days of the infamous three “nos”. Not much was written about that sad chapter in Arab diplomacy, but suffice to recall that that offer would make the acceptance of UN Security Resolution 242 a major defeat in Arab diplomacy.

The emotional stance followed by Pachachi then was indeed an aberration from his perfect record in championing rationality and statesmanship throughout his career as a diplomat at the UN headquarters.

Leaving that episode aside, Pachachi is and has been a true gentlemen whose role in the new Iraq is indispensable. As long as there are people of Pachachi's calibre on the Governing Council of Iraq, the Iraqis and the rest of the Arab world must feel at ease and confident over the future of the Iraqi people and their country. Iraq is obviously in safe hands if Pachachi is allowed enough elbow room to manoeuvre and help make the necessary decisive decisions on behalf of his country.

When he says that Iraq will return to self-rule within 18 months, we must believe him. And when he says that drafting and adopting a constitution is the number one priority, we must also believe him, for he knows what he is talking about. Once the new Iraqi constitution is adopted through a referendum, general elections can be held, presumably under Arab and international supervision. It goes without saying that any such general elections should be conducted on the basis of legislation that would take into full consideration the various international human rights conventions that Iraq is a party to. As a matter of fact, the Governing Council must hasten to declare its endorsement of these conventions, as a successor regime to Saddam Hussein's government.

Pachachi is an elder statesman who has nothing to gain by stealing his people's inalienable rights and basic freedoms. I have full confidence in the 25-member Governing Council if only because Pachachi has a role in it.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).