Iraqi Premier Gives Positive Report to U.N.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari on Saturday offered the United Nations a rosy picture of the situation in his nation, saying it was “regaining security and stability.”

“We are marching toward political stability and economic prosperity,” he said at the 60th session of the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly.

About 250 people have been slain in Iraq since Wednesday, when a suicide bomber killed more than 110 day laborers by luring them to his minivan with promises of work.

Jafari said Iraqi security forces continued to prepare “to take over all security matters” from the U.S.-led multinational force, but that the time was not yet ripe for his country to become completely self-dependent, “even though some Iraqi cities have prepared to do so.”

Jafari said Iraq’s newly drafted constitution would “allow law and order, justice and equality for all Iraqis.” The charter will be put before voters in a referendum next month. “Iraqi women will have their rights restored, including the right to pass on citizenship to their children just like Iraqi men have done,” he said.

But some rights activists have said that the draft charter would reduce women’s rights by allowing certain family matters to be resolved by clerical law rather than in civil courts.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council last week that violent deaths were on the rise among Iraqi civilians because of terrorism, crime and military abuse.