UNITED NATIONS, Sept 6: Iraq has become a greater hub of terrorism than Afghanistan under Taliban, as the war in Iraq fuelled unrest among Muslims in the world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview with the BBC television on Monday.
“My sense is that Iraq has become a major problem and in fact is worse than Afghanistan,” Mr Annan said in the interview.
Mr Annan, who created a furore last year when he called the 2003 US-British invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein illegal, said that many young Muslims are angry, and their anger has been exacerbated by what is happening in Iraq.
Mr Annan said last year that the 15-member UN Security Council should have approved the Iraq invasion.
Asked whether the invasion broke international law, Mr Annan said: “Yes, if you wish. I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN Charter from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.
“I think there are many Muslims that are extremely unhappy today. Unhappy because they feel victimized, they feel isolated, they feel victimized in their own society, they feel victimized in the West, and they feel this profiling against them. And the Iraqi situation has not helped matters,” he said.
“In fact one used to be worried about Afghanistan being the centre of terrorist activities; my sense is that Iraq has become a major problem and in fact it’s worse than Afghanistan,” said Mr Annan.
Responding to questions on UN reforms ahead of next week’s UN summit, the UN chief warned the world’s nations that they have just a few days to salvage ‘a once in a generation opportunity’ to fight poverty and overhaul the United Nations.
He reflected that it was ‘unfortunate’ that the United States waited until just last month to propose hundreds of amendments to a final document for world leaders to consider adopting. Annan said it opened ‘the floodgates’ to other amendments and changed the dynamics of the negotiations.
Mr Annan predicted that the United States would fail in its efforts to delete the phrase ‘Millennium Development Goals’ from a document on wide-ranging UN reforms world leaders are to approve at a summit next week.
“It’s a phrase that has been embraced by the whole world,” he said. “And this is why I think that anyone who tries to remove it is going to fail.”
On the Independent Inquiry Committee report Mr Annan said that he expected to face blame over the Iraqi oil-for-food programme.
