Did U.N. envoy to Iraq Jeanine Antoinette Plasschaert ask members of the United Nations Security Council to allow Saddam Hussein's political party to return to power in Iraq? No, that's not true: The Baath party led by former dictator Hussein was banned in 2003 following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and there is no evidence to show the envoy challenged the ban in any way or suggested the current government be changed.
The claim appeared in many posts, such as this video (archived here) published on TikTok on August 9, 2023, under the title (translated from Arabic to English by Lead Stories staff) "Plasschaert drops a surprise" with a caption reading:
According to Iraqi and Western politicians, the current regime in Iraq is living its last days
The presenter in the video says:
Plasschaert says we have to give the Baath party a second chance
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Aug 15 16:32:25 2023 UTC)
The claim spread on TikTok, as seen in this video, and on Facebook.
The post shows a video of Plasschaert addressing the U.N. Security Council in May 2023 to brief members on the situation in Iraq. Her speech, published on the U.N. website (video, text), does not mention a regime change in Baghdad and returning the Baath party to power.
Instead, the envoy provided a general update on the situation in Iraq, describing political efforts to combat corruption and improve government services, relations with the country's Kurdish region and Kuwait, a water supply shortage and efforts by parliament to draft a budget before upcoming elections. She concluded, "Now is not the time to be complacent or to take for granted that Iraq has turned a corner."
