UNITED NATIONS—Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed the reduction in attacks across Iraq and called for similar improvements in the political arena.
His report to the U.N. Security Council echoed the message that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brought Iraq's leader during a visit Tuesday, warning that the cut in violence could be fleeting if the country's main groups did not reach an agreement on the future of the country.
Ban, who wrote his report prior to Rice's visit, said "the reduction in the overall number of attacks reported across Iraq is a welcome development."
But he said continued improvement in the security situation is likely to depend on engagement by Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-led multinational force, an extension of a temporary cease-fire by radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and developments related to the Awakening Councils, Sunni Arab groups that switched sides to join U.S. forces against al-Qaida in Iraq.
The secretary-general cautioned, however, that attacks causing mass casualties "are a sobering reminder that those using terrorism in pursuit of their political aims have no regard for human rights or human life."
He lamented that the political process has not shown the "degree of progress" that many had hoped for.
"In order to sustain recent improvements in the security situation, similar improvements in the political arena are needed," Ban said.
The secretary-general said his new special representative in Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, will continue trying to encourage engagement by leaders on the core political disagreements.
Six Sunni Arab ministers quit Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in August to protest his perceived Shiite bias. Kurds remain in the government, but differences have emerged over a draft legislation to divvy up Iraq's oil revenue and settle control of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city claimed by the Kurds. The city's Arab and Turkomen communities object to the Kurdish claim.
The Iraqi parliament did take an important step last week to open the way for low-ranking members of Saddam's Baath party to reclaim government posts and pensions.
Ban said he has instructed de Mistura to review every aspect of the U.N.'s work in Iraq to see how progress can be made in implementing the expanded role authorized by the Security Council in August.
