scoone
01-12-2004, 03:07 PM
IRAQIS TO MEET ANNAN
A Governing Council delegation is due to meet Annan in New York on Jan. 19.
Under the U.S. plan, regional caucuses will select a transitional Iraqi assembly by the end of May and the assembly will select an interim government to take over sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections will follow in 2005.
Iraq's most senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has demanded the transitional assembly should be directly elected and warned of increased political tensions and violence if polls are not held within months.
Shi'ites make up the majority of Iraq's population and were repressed during Saddam's three decades of iron rule.
The U.S. plan is also running into problems over a pledge of autonomy to Kurds.
Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni country that is concerned at the rising power of Shi'ites in southern Iraq, warned against any plan to split Iraq into ethnic Kurdish, Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim territories.
"The partitioning of Iraq ... will have dangerous consequences on all of us," said Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
Washington has started moving fresh troops into Iraq through a U.S. air base in NATO-member Turkey and pulling out those who have completed their deployment, a Turkish official said.
A Governing Council delegation is due to meet Annan in New York on Jan. 19.
Under the U.S. plan, regional caucuses will select a transitional Iraqi assembly by the end of May and the assembly will select an interim government to take over sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections will follow in 2005.
Iraq's most senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has demanded the transitional assembly should be directly elected and warned of increased political tensions and violence if polls are not held within months.
Shi'ites make up the majority of Iraq's population and were repressed during Saddam's three decades of iron rule.
The U.S. plan is also running into problems over a pledge of autonomy to Kurds.
Saudi Arabia, a predominantly Sunni country that is concerned at the rising power of Shi'ites in southern Iraq, warned against any plan to split Iraq into ethnic Kurdish, Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim territories.
"The partitioning of Iraq ... will have dangerous consequences on all of us," said Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
Washington has started moving fresh troops into Iraq through a U.S. air base in NATO-member Turkey and pulling out those who have completed their deployment, a Turkish official said.