Washington (AFP) - A senior US official voiced optimism Wednesday on setting up an intervention force for Haiti and said Canada was equipped to take the lead, amid spiralling security and health crises in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel Thursday to Canada where the Haitian crisis will be high on the agenda following appeals by Haitian and UN leaders to send a force to restore order.
President Joe Biden's administration has made clear it has no desire to send US troops in harm's way but a top official rejected pessimism that no country would step forward amid discussions at the UN Security Council.
"I am very optimistic that the international community and the Security Council will come together around another resolution that would create a multinational force for Haiti," said Brian Nichols, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.
"I strongly disagree with the idea that a resolution authorising a multinational force is in peril," he told reporters.
The Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution that targeted gang leaders who have taken over vast stretches of Haiti, including seizing the main oil terminal, but it did not address a multinational force.
Nichols said that a "number of countries" have the capacity to lead a mission but that there has been no decision.
"Among those countries is Canada, but it's not the only country that can do that," he said.
"I've talked to dozens of partner nations around the world about the situation in Haiti and there is strong support for a multinational force," he said.
"The desire to contribute in whatever ways nations feel that they can be helpful, I think, is very widespread in our hemisphere and beyond."
Haiti has seen intersecting security, political and health crises with an outbreak in cholera, largely among children.
Blinken said ahead of his trip that solving Haiti's problems would be "difficult, if not impossible" without restoring security.
He reiterated the US focus on building the Haitian National Police, pointing to the delivery on October 15 by the US and Canadian militaries of equipment including armored vehicles.
"We need to break the nexus -- a very noxious nexus -- between the gangs and certain political elites who are funding them, directing them and using them to advance their own interests instead of the interests of the country," Blinken told an event at Bloomberg News.
"If we are able to help break that up as well as reinforce the Haitian National Police, then I think the government can get a grip on security," he said.
