seruriermarshal
05-25-2004, 01:33 AM
Envoy to Name Iraq Transitional Gov`t Soon
Source: www.uniraq.gov
BAGHDAD - U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is on track to announce a transitional government by the end of May, a full month ahead of the scheduled transfer of sovereignty to Iraq. His work, however, remains far from over, according to officials close to the process.
While the veteran Algerian diplomat is nearly settled on who will take Cabinet posts, he remains undecided on the two most sought after jobs — president and prime minister — say the officials, who are familiar with the deliberations and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Filling the two jobs without causing a major political rift is the most challenging task facing Brahimi since the country's three main groups — the Shiite majority and the large Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities — are after one of the two top posts.
The Bush administration is counting on Brahimi to deliver a formula for the next Iraqi administration that everyone will accept, allowing the White House to claim an Iraq policy success after a series of miscalculations that now threaten President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election.
Besides the Sunni insurgency in Baghdad and areas to the north and west, U.S. forces have been battling a Shiite rebellion led by a radical cleric for nearly two months. The abuse and ****** humiliation of Iraqi detainees in a prison just west of Baghdad has shattered the occupation's moral authority and spiked already high anti-U.S. sentiment among Iraqis.
Now an administration that largely shunned the United Nations (news - web sites) as it geared up last year to launch the war on Iraq is hoping that an aging, Arab representative of the world organization will bail them out.
"I'm convinced that when we settle things down in Iraq and an interim government takes over, the Arab world — the whole world — will see that, boy, the Americans really have done something valuable and they're improving the region," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said in a Friday interview with Westwood One Radio Network.
Another potentially dangerous problem facing Brahimi is the insistence by Kurdish politicians that a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq should express support for an interim constitution agreed to March 8 by the Iraqi Governing Council over objections from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric.
Al-Sistani, whose views on the political process are heeded by Iraq's Shiites — about 60 percent of Iraqis — already has warned against such a move by the United Nations. Together with several Shiite members of the Governing Council, he believes the document gives the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs a veto when the permanent constitution is voted on in a referendum next year.
The interim constitution enshrines the principle of federalism, something that the Kurds have long wanted in order to formalize their 13-year autonomy in their three northern regions. Sunnis say it may lead to the country's breakup.
Brahimi has been consulting with a wide range of Iraqis from across this nation of 25 million people since he arrived in Baghdad on May 6 on his third visit to Iraq in as many months.
In addition, a team of U.N. election experts is helping Iraqi authorities prepare for the general election. The transitional government will take over June 30 and stay in office until the elections are held.
The leader of the U.N. team, Carina Perelli, said Sunday that three members of her team will begin interviewing candidates this week for a seven-member election commission and the position of chief electoral officer.
The officials said the transitional government will "broadly reflect" the makeup of the country, strike a balance between technocrats and others with links to political parties and include groups not represented on the Iraqi Governing Council, created by the U.S.-led coalition 10 months ago to act as the country's interim administration.
The problem of who gets the two top jobs arose when a possible third position of roughly the same rank — speaker of a consultative legislature — was taken off the table. Brahimi recommended last month that such a body be formed in July, rather than before the transfer of power on June 30.
"We want one of the two jobs, the president or the prime minister," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish Governing Council member. "It's agreed that Iraq is divided between two groups, Arabs and Kurds and each should get one."
It's a view that throws the Arab Shiites and the Sunni Arabs, who had oppressed them for decades, into one basket. While ethnically correct, Othman's classification ignores the rivalry between a majority that has just been empowered and a minority struggling for political relevance in the new order created by the ouster of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), himself a Sunni.
Source: www.uniraq.gov
BAGHDAD - U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is on track to announce a transitional government by the end of May, a full month ahead of the scheduled transfer of sovereignty to Iraq. His work, however, remains far from over, according to officials close to the process.
While the veteran Algerian diplomat is nearly settled on who will take Cabinet posts, he remains undecided on the two most sought after jobs — president and prime minister — say the officials, who are familiar with the deliberations and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Filling the two jobs without causing a major political rift is the most challenging task facing Brahimi since the country's three main groups — the Shiite majority and the large Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities — are after one of the two top posts.
The Bush administration is counting on Brahimi to deliver a formula for the next Iraqi administration that everyone will accept, allowing the White House to claim an Iraq policy success after a series of miscalculations that now threaten President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election.
Besides the Sunni insurgency in Baghdad and areas to the north and west, U.S. forces have been battling a Shiite rebellion led by a radical cleric for nearly two months. The abuse and ****** humiliation of Iraqi detainees in a prison just west of Baghdad has shattered the occupation's moral authority and spiked already high anti-U.S. sentiment among Iraqis.
Now an administration that largely shunned the United Nations (news - web sites) as it geared up last year to launch the war on Iraq is hoping that an aging, Arab representative of the world organization will bail them out.
"I'm convinced that when we settle things down in Iraq and an interim government takes over, the Arab world — the whole world — will see that, boy, the Americans really have done something valuable and they're improving the region," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said in a Friday interview with Westwood One Radio Network.
Another potentially dangerous problem facing Brahimi is the insistence by Kurdish politicians that a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq should express support for an interim constitution agreed to March 8 by the Iraqi Governing Council over objections from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric.
Al-Sistani, whose views on the political process are heeded by Iraq's Shiites — about 60 percent of Iraqis — already has warned against such a move by the United Nations. Together with several Shiite members of the Governing Council, he believes the document gives the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs a veto when the permanent constitution is voted on in a referendum next year.
The interim constitution enshrines the principle of federalism, something that the Kurds have long wanted in order to formalize their 13-year autonomy in their three northern regions. Sunnis say it may lead to the country's breakup.
Brahimi has been consulting with a wide range of Iraqis from across this nation of 25 million people since he arrived in Baghdad on May 6 on his third visit to Iraq in as many months.
In addition, a team of U.N. election experts is helping Iraqi authorities prepare for the general election. The transitional government will take over June 30 and stay in office until the elections are held.
The leader of the U.N. team, Carina Perelli, said Sunday that three members of her team will begin interviewing candidates this week for a seven-member election commission and the position of chief electoral officer.
The officials said the transitional government will "broadly reflect" the makeup of the country, strike a balance between technocrats and others with links to political parties and include groups not represented on the Iraqi Governing Council, created by the U.S.-led coalition 10 months ago to act as the country's interim administration.
The problem of who gets the two top jobs arose when a possible third position of roughly the same rank — speaker of a consultative legislature — was taken off the table. Brahimi recommended last month that such a body be formed in July, rather than before the transfer of power on June 30.
"We want one of the two jobs, the president or the prime minister," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish Governing Council member. "It's agreed that Iraq is divided between two groups, Arabs and Kurds and each should get one."
It's a view that throws the Arab Shiites and the Sunni Arabs, who had oppressed them for decades, into one basket. While ethnically correct, Othman's classification ignores the rivalry between a majority that has just been empowered and a minority struggling for political relevance in the new order created by the ouster of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), himself a Sunni.