Inocencio F. Arias

Inocencio F. Arias   (diplomat)
Arias in 2014
Born	20 April 1940 Albox, Almería province
Nationality	Spanish
Alma mater	University of Murcia
Spanish diplomat who was Permanent Representative to the United Nations  President of the United Nations Security Council In office 1 July 2003 - 31 July 2003  Chairman of the UNSC's Counter-Terrorism Committee In office 2003 - 2004 Succeeded by Andrey I. Denisov

Inocencio F. Arias, also known as Chencho, is a Spanish diplomat who was consul general in Los Angeles, California, and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He retired in 2010.

Career

Arias, who holds a degree in Law and joined the diplomatic service in 1967 under Francisco Franco, also has a considerable experience outside the diplomatic world.

His previous assignment was as Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations in New York City. In the Security Council he presided the Antiterrorism Committee of the United Nations. Previously, he served as State Secretary for International cooperation and for Ibero-American Affairs (1991–93) and as Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1988–91).

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arias was Director of the Diplomatic Information Office and spokesman of the Department with quite different administrations: center, 1980–82; socialist, 1985–88; and center-right, 1996-97. During his diplomatic career, he was in Bolivia, Algeria and Portugal.

He participated in several international conferences: the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro 1992); European Councils (1986, 87, 88, 96); NATO summit (Madrid, 1997); Middle East Summit (Madrid 1991) and Non-Aligned Movement Summit (Jakarta 1992); Iberoamerican Summits (Mexico City 1991, Madrid 1992, Bahia 1993, Santiago, Chile 1996).

He has been a member of the Spanish Delegation to the 36th, 37th, 40th-43rd, and 51st-57th sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.

Non-diplomatic experience

He was General Director of the football Club Real Madrid (1993–95). He also has experienced the academic field, having been professor of International Relations at the Complutense University and at the University Carlos III, both in Madrid.

Arias is the author of several books, papers and contributions, among others, on political issues and international relations. His latest title, "Confesiones de un diplomatico" (Publisher: Planeta), is about the events leading up to the Iraq invasion inside the U.N. Security Council, interspersed with U.S. famous historic events as well as the entertainment industry and U.S. pastimes viewed from a Spanish/European perspective. Martin Prieto in "El Mundo" writes that Arias, after examining the origins and development of the Iraq war, states that without the terrorist attack of March 2003 in Madrid the center-right Popular Party would have won the elections of that year and examines the European antiamericanism plus the American ignorance of Europe.

In addition, Mr. Arias authored a book about three famous football stars ("Los Tres Mitos del Real Madrid"): Di Stéfano, Butragueño and Raúl; and edited a multilingual international soccer dictionary during the Football World Cup hosted by Spain in 1982.

In February 2010 Arias published "La Trastienda de la Diplomacia" (Ed. Plaza Janés)(The backroom of diplomacy) that describes with humor and insight some 25 international encounters. The book had a fast second printing because the first one was sold out in three weeks.

Controversy about the Invasion of Iraq in 2003

Arias made the headlines in August 2003, when he was recalled from New York with immediate effect, despite the fact that he was officially on holiday. The corporate media seemed to agree stating "it's no secret that the Spanish government is unhappy with comments made by Arias" who said that "if weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, the justification of the decision to go to war would be undermined". The government said, however, that the ambassador returned for 'professional reasons'.

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References

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