Yes. To be fair I saw it in OVA form already. What do you need to know?
It does because this is a war that's been going on and off since original Gundam. But the important part is everyone is after Laplace's Box which can potentially overthrow the Federation due to it's contents that supposedly relate to the founding of the Universal Century calendar. Only higher ups knew it existed and virtually no one knows what it really contains.
Are you sure Char died?
Anyway, people consider him "The Second Coming of Char".