Annan gets special adviser on Iraq
Former envoy to Afghanistan expected to work on U.N. role
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Lakhdar Brahimi
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UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Lakhdar Brahimi, previously U.N. special representative to Afghanistan, has been appointed special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the United Nations said Thursday.
It is expected a large part of Brahimi's work will involve Iraq and that he will help define the U.N. role in the country. He will be based in New York and his rank will be undersecretary-general.
A former Algerian foreign minister, Brahimi completed his two-year assignment to Afghanistan this month.
The central Asian country has taken the step of adopting a democratic constitution after the United States ousted the ruling Taliban two years ago and helped form a new government.
The announcement came as the United Nations mulls a return to Iraq and its role in the post-Saddam era.
Annan, Iraqi Governing Council members and coalition officials, including U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer and top British official Jeremy Greenstock, are scheduled to meet Monday in New York to discuss the U.N. role. The Security Council will meet the same day with Iraqi officials.
The world body withdrew its staff from Iraq after an August bombing that killed Annan's special representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 others.
Brahimi, 70, is well liked by the United States. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the job of special representative was not offered to Brahimi and he doubted Brahimi would accept if it was. He did not elaborate.
The Afghanistan job was Brahimi's second stint there. He was the secretary-general's special envoy to Afghanistan from July 1997 to October 1999.
He was awarded Afghanistan's highest decoration, the Order of Ghazi Amanula Khan.
Between his two assignments in Afghanistan, he was as undersecretary-general for special assignments in support of the secretary-general's preventive and peacemaking efforts. He developed a study of peacekeeping known as the Brahimi report.
He also has been the U.N. special representative to Haiti and to South Africa. He has been on missions in Liberia, Yemen and Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
