United States welcomes Amb. Qazi's appointment of UNSG's Special Representative on Iraq

WASHINGTON, Jul 12 (APP)- The United States Monday welcomed the appointment of Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi to the post of UNSG's Special Representative on Iraq.

"We welcome it. We look forward to working with him at the United Nations, as we have worked with him in Washington as Pakistan's Ambassador."

The State Department Spokesman commented on the appointment of Ambassador Qazi for the important U.N. assignment.

In response to a question at the daily Press briefing, Mr. Richard Boucher said: "It's certainly, we think, an important development for the United Nations to have the special envoy of the Secretary General working on Iraq."

He said, the United States would do "everything possible to support his effort," to work with him and the Iraqi government and also "to take care of things like assisting them with security and other areas like that where the multinational forces might be of assistance."

The formal announcement made today at the United Nations, says that UNSG has appointed Ambassador Qazi as his Special envoy forIraq. Mr. Qazi has been Pakistan's ambassador to the United Statessince 2002, and is acknowledged being a veteran Pakistani career diplomat.

Asked where would the new U.N. Special Envoy be based for the time being, Mr.Boucher said that while he did not about it, "I imagine he'll be back and forth a bit."

Mr. Boucher said, the United States looked forward to working with him as the special representative of the Secretary General.

To a question as to which countries could contribute troops to protect U.N. mission in Iraq, the State Department Spokesman said that he would not try to characterize it at this moment.

"We are having discussions with other governments, including governments in South Asia, about how they might contribute to security in Iraq. There is this possibility some governments might want to step forward and participate in forces to protect the United Nations operations there."

He referred to the interview by Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage,who already mentioned last week that that was one of the issues that he would be taking up during the course of his trip to South Asia.

The Spokesman, however, said "at this point," he did not have "anything new on that."