UN issues statement clarifying reasons for Blaskhart leaving Baghdad
Mawazine News – Baghdad
The UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) issued a statement to “set things in perspective” regarding “misleading reports” by traditional media and Iraqi communication platforms about why the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Jeanine Blaschart, had left the country.
In its statement, the mission stressed that the departure of Blasschart “is consistent with practices within the UN, including the usual rotation of senior UN officials.”
In her last briefing to the Security Council that she said she might be the last on Iraq, she announced that she arrived in Baghdad in December 2018 and “now, five years later, it’s almost time to say goodbye and expect to leave my position at the end of May,” describing Iraq “a country of immense beauty, a country of rich diversity and culture, where there are many opportunities to seize.”
The mission distanced itself from “allegations of corruption” at UNDP and made in a report by the British newspaper The Guardian by asserting that “UNAMI and UNDP have different administrative and financial structures.”
She urged the media to “prioritize accuracy and refrain from circulating misinformation.”