Post by bot on Jun 1, 2004 0:46:03 GMT -5
US fails to talk round defiant council
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1228679,00.html
Deadlock on choice of president delays unveiling of government
Luke Harding and Michael Howard in Baghdad
Tuesday June 1, 2004
The Guardian
The UN's special envoy to Iraq failed to unveil the new interim government yesterday after a second day of embarrassing wrangling between the US and the governing council.
Lakhdar Brahimi had said he would announce it by the end of May, ahead of the formal transfer of sovereignty in 30 days' time. But his plan was delayed again, apparently at the US's request, after the governing council refused to endorse Washington's choice of Iraq's first post-Saddam president, 81-year-old Adnan Pachachi.
Council members have insisted that Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, the council's president, should get the job.
"The Americans have asked for the meeting to be delayed until today," said Dr Mahmoud Othman, a leading member of the US-appointed council. "The coalition seems to be trying to interfere in every single decision, in every cabinet post and every ministry.
"If the new administration is not elected by Iraqis then at least it can be appointed by Iraqis ... the way Mr Bremer and Mr Brahimi are behaving is not a good model for the future."
Coalition officials stress that the unelected and widely unpopular governing council is "just one of the many" groups and organisations being consulted in Mr Brahimi's "nationwide" search for a government acceptable to all.
In an attempt to break the deadlock, the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, is floating a little-known former general as a compromise candidate.
Ibrahim Faisal Ansari served as a commander in Iraq's pre-Saddam military and was later jailed under the Ba'ath party and tortured.
The Kurds, however, are likely to block his candidacy. "Ansari fought on every mountain in Kurdistan against us. Do you think we are going to accept him?" one Kurdish official in the regional government of Arbil said.
According to council members, the US was lobbying furiously among Shia leaders to try to persuade them to back Mr Pachachi. The former Iraqi foreign minister from the pre-Saddam era has close connections with Washington and the UN, as well as with pro-US countries in the Gulf.
Sheikh Ghazi, by contrast, is a businessman and prominent Sunni tribal figure who has recently criticised the US's inept management of Iraq. He also enjoys the support of the Shias and the Kurds.
Either way, the dispute is likely to confirm the widespread impression among ordinary Iraqis that nothing will change after the partial handover of power. It also weakens the authority of Mr Brahimi, who appears to be unable to act independently from the US.
Mr Bremer and Robert Blackwill, President George Bush's special envoy, will meet council members today, a day late. Relations between Mr Bremer and the governing council appear to have collapsed in the past week. At an ill-tempered meeting on Sunday, the ambassador told the Iraqis that if they voted for Sheikh Ghazi as president he would ignore their decision.
One disenchanted governing council member then suggested that the new president's first act should be to establish a "de-Bremerisation" committee.
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1228679,00.html
Deadlock on choice of president delays unveiling of government
Luke Harding and Michael Howard in Baghdad
Tuesday June 1, 2004
The Guardian
The UN's special envoy to Iraq failed to unveil the new interim government yesterday after a second day of embarrassing wrangling between the US and the governing council.
Lakhdar Brahimi had said he would announce it by the end of May, ahead of the formal transfer of sovereignty in 30 days' time. But his plan was delayed again, apparently at the US's request, after the governing council refused to endorse Washington's choice of Iraq's first post-Saddam president, 81-year-old Adnan Pachachi.
Council members have insisted that Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, the council's president, should get the job.
"The Americans have asked for the meeting to be delayed until today," said Dr Mahmoud Othman, a leading member of the US-appointed council. "The coalition seems to be trying to interfere in every single decision, in every cabinet post and every ministry.
"If the new administration is not elected by Iraqis then at least it can be appointed by Iraqis ... the way Mr Bremer and Mr Brahimi are behaving is not a good model for the future."
Coalition officials stress that the unelected and widely unpopular governing council is "just one of the many" groups and organisations being consulted in Mr Brahimi's "nationwide" search for a government acceptable to all.
In an attempt to break the deadlock, the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, is floating a little-known former general as a compromise candidate.
Ibrahim Faisal Ansari served as a commander in Iraq's pre-Saddam military and was later jailed under the Ba'ath party and tortured.
The Kurds, however, are likely to block his candidacy. "Ansari fought on every mountain in Kurdistan against us. Do you think we are going to accept him?" one Kurdish official in the regional government of Arbil said.
According to council members, the US was lobbying furiously among Shia leaders to try to persuade them to back Mr Pachachi. The former Iraqi foreign minister from the pre-Saddam era has close connections with Washington and the UN, as well as with pro-US countries in the Gulf.
Sheikh Ghazi, by contrast, is a businessman and prominent Sunni tribal figure who has recently criticised the US's inept management of Iraq. He also enjoys the support of the Shias and the Kurds.
Either way, the dispute is likely to confirm the widespread impression among ordinary Iraqis that nothing will change after the partial handover of power. It also weakens the authority of Mr Brahimi, who appears to be unable to act independently from the US.
Mr Bremer and Robert Blackwill, President George Bush's special envoy, will meet council members today, a day late. Relations between Mr Bremer and the governing council appear to have collapsed in the past week. At an ill-tempered meeting on Sunday, the ambassador told the Iraqis that if they voted for Sheikh Ghazi as president he would ignore their decision.
One disenchanted governing council member then suggested that the new president's first act should be to establish a "de-Bremerisation" committee.