A top U.N. official involved in deciding when staff should fully return to Iraq said Friday it was hard to envision such a move until security improved. “It is hard to envision we would be able to carry out the full range of activities we would like to do … until security improves,” Kevin Kennedy, chief of the Humanitarian Emergency Branch of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters. Kennedy and other top U.N. officials were meeting in Cyprus to make a recommendation to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the return of staff to Iraq. Most staff were pulled out after an August 19 attack on the organization’s headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 staff and visitors, including the head of the operation, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Kennedy said the discussions would end at the weekend when a recommendation would be made to Annan. Full Story
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