Statement by the Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the Adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution on Iraq

August 15, 2003

At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held in the afternoon of August 14 (Japan time: early morning of August 15), the Council adopted by an overwhelming majority UNSC resolution 1500 which welcomes the establishment of the Governing Council of Iraq and decides to establish the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). Japan welcomes the adoption of this resolution, as a step forward in the political process based on UNSC resolution 1483 and also as a concerted effort of the international community to reconstruct Iraq with the sufficient involvement of the United Nations.
Japan expects that the tasks of the United Nations stipulated by resolution 1483 will be implemented more effectively by the adoption of resolution 1500, and hopes that with further cooperation of the United Nations, the Governing Council of Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and each Member State, public order will be recovered and reconstruction work will further make progress in Iraq, and a government enjoying the broad support of the international community and the people of Iraq will be established soon.
Japan will continue to be proactively engaged in the reconstruction of Iraq, including support for the efforts to establish a government run by the people of Iraq themselves.

(END)