Khalilzad: U.S. wants U.N. mediator for Iraq

Above: In 2003 a bomb tore through part of the United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad, killing at least 17 people including the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The UN withdrew operations from Iraq at the time, and returned later with only a minimal presence.

Washington wants to install a special U.N. mediator for Iraq.

"We need ... someone who can bring the Iraqi people and regional powers together," Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghanistan-born U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an exclusive interview with German news magazine Stern, which hits the newsstands Thursday. United Press International obtained excerpts of the interview before publication.

Khalilzad told Stern he discussed this idea of an international mediator with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was supportive, and also got a green light from Washington.

"I discussed it with Ms. (U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice and our leadership as well as with several senators," he said. "I can say the United States supports the idea."

Khalilzad said the current U.N. mandate for Iraq, which is up for renewal in August, needed to be "expanded" and "enhanced."

Read the rest at UPI

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