UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations' chief envoy in Iraq gave a mixed report on Monday on the situation, saying security had improved but an Iraqi political consensus was needed for a long-term reduction in violence.
"We cannot ignore the recent improvements both in the security and political situation in Iraq," Staffan de Mistura, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said in a address to the Security Council.
Reasons for the reduced level of violence include the increased presence of U.S. and other troops, a ceasefire declared by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and increased cooperation with Iraq's neighbors, he said.
However, "absent a political consensus on the most fundamental elements of the Iraqi state -- currently tenuous -- the Iraqis will achieve no lasting solution on the reduction of violence," he warned the council.
Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Hamid al-Bayati, told the council "the Iraqi government is determined to continue its efforts to achieve national reconciliation to reinforce social cohesion and to avoid a civil war."
