The United Nations Security Council on Thursday adopted a presidential statement on Iraq reaffirming its support for the U.N.'s assistance mission there as the secretary general's outgoing Iraq envoy briefed the council on challenges ahead. “The priorities are self-evident—delivery of basic services, dialogue between the Kurdish Regional Government and the Government of Iraq leading to diffusing tensions in Kirkuk and other disputed areas and preparation for upcoming elections” Staffan de Mistura, the outgoing envoy, told the council. De Mistura said during his four years heading the U.N.'s mission in Iraq, the major accomplishments were preventing a new conflict between Kurds and Arabs in the disputed oil-rich province of Kirkuk as well as facilitating the return of displaced Iraqis. The U.N. hoped that Kurdish parliamentary elections will be held later this year, but de Mistura cautioned that it would be wrong “to force premature or ill-prepared events.” The Security Council was also discussing the latest secretary general's report on Iraq, which noted that 50,000 Iraqi families had returned to their homes since early 2008. The report noted that most of returnees were internally displaced, often within the same governorate. While de Mistura said the exact number of internally displaced in Iraq is “undetermined,” the World Food Program are providing assistance to over 600,000 internally displaced. De Mistura added that the decision of families to return to their homes “depends largely on improved quality of life in poor communities and opportunity in Iraq. Security is only one of many drivers of return in Iraq.” He also said that “Iraq is not a humanitarian crisis, but has humanitarian pockets of dire need and displacement does not necessarily equal vulnerability.” Looking forward, de Mistura said, “the future looks moderately bright and there is growing hope…that Iraq will flourish” if it can cement security gains, diffuse ethnic and religious tensions, deliver basic services and foster more political inclusiveness.
