Lakhdar Brahimi

Iraq

In addition to the Afghanistan work, he was the United Nations representative to Iraq during the formation of the Interim Iraqi Government, which was established in June 2004 after extensive negotiations. He resigned his UN post as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, stating frustration with L. Paul Bremer in establishing a government in Iraq. He concluded he did the best job possible under the circumstances.

The friction was not only with Bremer. He was strongly criticized by Americans, opponents of Pan-Arab nationalism, about his silence, while Algerian foreign minister or an Arab League official, about Saddam's atrocities in the past. Fouad Ajami accused him of sympathies with Saddam's system: "Mr. Brahimi hails from the very same political class that has wrecked the Arab world..his technocracy is, in truth, but a cover for the restoration of the old edifice of power." Michael Rubin had similar comments in the National Review.

While in Iraq, he was also critical of Ariel Sharon's government of Israel and George W. Bush's support of it. He told a French radio station in April 2004, "There is no doubt that the great poison in the region is this Israeli policy of domination … as well as the perception of all of the population in the region, and beyond, of the injustice of this policy and the equally unjust support … of the United States for this policy." He confirmed this to ABC News: "I think there is unanimity in the Arab world, and indeed in much of the rest of the world, that the Israeli policy is wrong, that the Israeli policy is brutal, repressive, and that they are not interested in peace no matter what you seem to believe in America."