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Annan
Opposes Early Elections In Iraq
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“There will have to be better organized elections later on,” Annan
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UNITED
NATIONS, February 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan Thursday, February 19, gave the United
States a major boost in Iraq, saying there was "consensus"
that elections there before the June 30 handover of power are not
feasible.
He
also said the handover date should be respected and that the United
Nations was working on recommendations about how to formulate an
interim government until elections can be held, according to Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Annan
told reporters he had put forward those points in a meeting with more
than 40 delegations at the United Nations which was also attended by
his trusted advisor on Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi.
"We
shared with them our sense of the emerging consensus or understanding
that elections cannot be held before the end of June, that the June 30
date for handover of sovereignty must be respected, and that we need
to find a mechanism to create a caretaker government and then help
prepare the elections for later, sometime later in the future,"
Annan said.
"We
hope that as we move forward, we'll be able to work with the Iraqis
and the coalition to find a mechanism for establishing a caretaker or
interim government until such time as elections are organized."
Annan’s
statements came identical to expectations Wednesday by senior U.N.
diplomats on the issue.
Annan
and Brahimi briefed more than 45 interested nations on the feasibility
of elections Thursday, followed by a lunch meeting with the 15 U.N.
Security Council members, according to Reuters.
The
diplomats had said Annan and Brahimi would have to discuss further,
perhaps for one week, the shape of an Iraqi interim government
envisaged to assume sovereignty on June 30.
Annan
will probably give a “window” for elections for a permanent
legislature and government to be held earlier than the United States
had envisioned, such as between late this year and early in 2005, the
diplomats added.
Brahimi
told a news conference before ending his visit on Friday, February 13,
that conducting elections without adequate preparations “could lead
to even
more disagreements" in the already highly-charged
situation in the country.
Annan’s
decision is a setback to Iraqi Shiite scholar Ayatollah Ali
Al-Sistani’s calls for holding direct elections instead of
U.S.-selected regional caucuses to select the provisional government.
Sistani
reportedly said during Brahimi’s visit to the country that he would
accept any mechanism that will represent the Iraqi people.
U.N.
officials said there was no question of delaying the June 30 handover
of power, important to the Bush administration before the U.S.
November presidential election as it struggles to hold back resistance
attacks against occupation forces.
In
an interview with Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper published
Thursday, Annan said that “there seems to be general acceptance of
the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election
between now and the end of June”.
"But
there will have to be better organized elections later on,” he told
the newspaper.
Annan,
who is scheduled to fly to Japan on Friday, is not expected to provide
a formal set of recommendations on Iraq's political future until after
he returns to New York on February 25, according to U.N. officials.
Alternatives
Among
the many options for an interim government to assume sovereignty on
June 30 is an expansion of the current U.S.-selected 24-member Iraqi
National Council, a favorite proposal in Washington, the diplomats
said.
But
U.N. officials said the problem still remains of who would choose the
members of the council so they would not be tainted by the occupation
authorities in the eyes of Iraqis, they told Reuters.
Among
the other ideas under consideration, a U.N. official said, is
organizing a national conference of tribal, political and religious
leaders that reflects Iraq's disparate population to select a
provisional government - similar to Afghanistan 's loya jirga.
Dozen
Options
State
Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher was quoted by the Washington
Post as saying that there are “at least a dozen, maybe a
score,” of ideas for a political transition in play.
“I'm
not going to lean towards any particular one or start throwing darts
at the list,” he said.
“I
think it's important for us all to remember that we have very similar
goals in Iraq. We all want Iraq to have a democracy,” he added.
Washington’s
top man in Iraq Paul Bremer has on said Monday, February 16, he will
not allow
Islam to be the main source of law in Iraq, warning that he could veto
the country's temporary constitution if it did not fit the “American
vision“ of democracy.
Besides
crafting a detailed blueprint for the political handover, the Bush
administration has yet to decide how much power to share with the
world body in implementing the plan.
One
State Department official voiced concern about the possibility that
member nations might call for a Security Council resolution to
formally approve a new plan for Iraq's transition.
"There's
ample opportunity to hijack this in the Security Council and take it
down a road we don't want to see it go," said the official,
speaking on the condition that he not be named.
France
and Germany, the council's two toughest critics of the U.S.-led
invasion against Iraq, said today that the Security Council should
adopt a new resolution.
Germany's
ambassador to the United Nations, Gunter Pleuger, said previous
resolutions on postwar Iraq would not be sufficient to reflect the
dramatic political changes in Iraq.
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