WASHINGTON, March 5: Despite the Indian track record of consistently opposing the United States on its perception of the Iraq crisis, Washington has expressed no misgivings about the appointment of Indian diplomat Prakash Shah as a United Nations special representative to Baghdad.Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to assign a special political representative to Iraq to improve lines of communication between Baghdad and the United Nations, the organisation's spokesman Fred Eckhard announced on Wednesday, confirming reports about Shah's impending appointment.Sources say the toss-up was between Shah and former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi. Shah got the call after Brahimi was seen as being too sympathetic to Iraq.Shah, 58, was India's permanent representative to the United Nations from 1995 to 1997, when he retired. He is considered a formidable disarmament expert, having previously served in Geneva.Shah did not return calls in New York seeking comment.A US official was quoteddescribing Shah as "very tough-minded, very legalistic, a very independent player and very clearly nobody's fool:".Soon after negotiating a deal with Baghdad last month, Annan had announced that the United Nations should have a "political presence" in Iraq to keep him informed of the problems affecting the world body and to act as a conduit for speedy exchanges with the Iraqis.He said there was "a conspicuous lack" of regular contact between the Iraqi government and the Secretary-General's office."He was frankly surprised that he didn't have a special representative there, given the political importance of Iraq to the UN these days," Eckhard said.In agreeing to Shah's appointment, Washington appears to have taken into consideration India's consistent opposition to American war-gaming against Iraq, except for a brief period in 1991 when the caretaker government of then prime minister Chandra Shekhar allowed US planes to refuel in Bombay during the Gulf War.The carefully concealed concession, whenreported in the media, caused an uproar in India with the Congress party gaining capital from it.Even now, officials here believe Indian leaders make cheap political capital out of the Iraq issue, notwithstanding claims by New Delhi that any crisis in the Gulf will severely hurt its economic interests.Last month, Prime Minister I K Gujral was quoted as telling an election rally in Gulburga that he had turned down a request from a big power for similar landing and transit facility. The Prime Minister's Office subsequently denied the remarks even as officials here said the US had made no such requests.That snafu has not affected Shah's appointment. The veteran diplomat will join scores of UN special representatives appointed from time to time by the Secretary-General to act as his troubleshooters in various hot spots across the world.But Shah's job will be in the limelight, given the current focus on Iraq. He will be the second Indian to join Annan's top team. Indian writer Shashi Tharoor is aspecial assistant to Annan.The United Nations officials were quoted as saying that Shah would keep Annan informed of events affecting the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) - which is charged with searching for prohibited weapons systems - and U.N. humanitarian workers monitoring the programme that allows Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine. However, he will not have authority over either programme.Shah is the second diplomat from the subcontinent to be called in to serve Annan in the Iraq crisis. The Secretary-General last week announced that Sri Lankan diplomat Jayanta Dhanapala would head a special diplomatic team that would accompany UN weapons inspectors during their search of sensitive Iraqi sites, including eight Presidential sites.
