The ceding of authority came as a stride forward to implement resolution No. 1546, which the United Nations Security Council had passed unanimously. Russia had been speaking up for the move ever since the Iraqi conflict started.
It was Russia's idea to convene an international conference on Iraq, and that idea is now more topical than ever before.
Russia approved resolution No. 1546, which envisaged Iraq reinstated in its sovereignty. Something matters even more, however. That is the practical extent to which political settlement is implemented in stages the resolution envisages, the minister emphatically remarked.
Iraqi settlement will be doomed unless the opposition is reckoned with, he warned.
What Iraq needs is national reconciliation. All must join in for political teamwork, including such opposition forces that make the backbone of armed resistance to military occupation forces. It is hard to expect settlement without such reconciliation, said Mr. Lavrov while commenting on a statement made during NATO summitry in Istanbul. It concerned NATO taking part in Iraqi army and law enforcement training.
Whatever promotes normalization of Iraqi developments deserves support-but with due account for the actual situation in Iraq, pointed out Sergei Lavrov.
He is in Istanbul for a Russia-NATO Council session. Tomorrow, he will appear at a summit of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, and hold bilateral conferences with his counterparts from Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Macedonia and Romania, and-possibly-with Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State.
From Istanbul, Mr. Lavrov will go by air to Indonesia for ASEAN events of June 30 into July 2, and on to the two Koreas. Seoul and Pyongyang attach tremendous importance to his visit-suffice it to mention North and South Korean ambassadors coming to see the Foreign Minister off at Moscow's Vnukovo 2 airport. That was one of the very rare occasions on which the two diplomats appeared together. Mr. Lavrov talked to both ambassadors to touch upon certain details of his upcoming visit, Alexander Yakovenko, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said to newsmen.
