NEW YORK, 9 April 2003 — Rafeeuddin Ahmed, a native of Pakistan, will be formally appointed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special adviser on Iraq.
Ahmed has been in the UN system for several years and was associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) among other high-level positions he held in the past.
At an impromptu press briefing Monday, Annan, who called an urgent Security Council meeting to discuss the UN’s role in post-war Iraq, said Ahmed had been advising him on Iraq.
“I wanted to discuss with them (Security Council) the developments on the ground and also to discuss post-conflict situation in Iraq, regardless of how the war ends,” Secretary-General Annan said.
“And of course we would also to have to see what the post-conflict environment would be, but the Council has been discussing informally and I have had Rafeeuddin Ahmed working as my adviser on this issue of post-conflict Iraq, doing some thinking about it, and he will be available to talk to the Council members as well. He will also be at the meeting,” Annan said.
Asked if he was going to be announcing a coordinator for Iraq, Annan said Ahmed has been his adviser all along. “Well, he (Ahmed) has been a special adviser, he has been working for me on this issue since February.
“I will be announcing him as my special adviser, and the council about it — we have discussed it before.” Ahmed has also served as UN special representative of the UN secretary general for humanitarian affairs in Southeast Asia.
He has been head of the UN task force on Iraqi reconstruction, since before Washington went into Iraq. Ahmed is expected to be charting some kind of framework for Iraq’s reconstruction.
“His role will be — actually he has been doing it already — thinking about the future, thinking about what is likely to happen and what the likely UN role will be, and also to be available to the Council members and all the members involved, to exchange ideas and then give me some advice,” Annan emphasized.
