U.S. May Ask U.N. For Iraq Help
With the U.S. plan for transferring power to a sovereign Iraqi government through an appointed legislature in peril, U.S. officials were holding urgent meetings Friday and considering a larger role for the United Nations.
The chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, was called home from Baghdad to confer with Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, Secretary of State Colin Powell and probably Mr. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. He scheduled a lunchtime meeting at the White House on Friday.
On Monday, Bremer is due to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the U.S.-appointed Iraq governing council on the imperiled Iraqi self-rule plan.
The consultations come as the U.S. plan faces vehement opposition from Iraq's foremost Shiite cleric and his followers.
An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani told Abu Dhabi television on Thursday that al-Sistani might issue a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring the U.S. plan illegitimate if his demand for direct elections are ignored.
The warning came as an estimated 30,000 Shiite Muslims rallied in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, in support of al-Sistani.
It was the biggest protest yet against the power transfer plan.
In other developments:
The United States wants regional caucuses to choose a new parliament, which will then select an Iraqi administration. It says security is too poor and voter records too incomplete for fair elections.
Instead, the Nov. 15 agreement provides for parliament members to be selected in 18 regional caucuses. The legislature would then choose a new, sovereign administration to take office by July 1.
The Americans also are wary of elections because of who might win. With Iraq in turmoil, Islamic radicals or Saddam Hussein's Baath party might dominate a vote simply because they have the best organizations.
The clerics want direct elections, fearing the caucuses may be rigged to keep Shiites out of power.
Al-Sistani wields vast influence among Iraq's Shiites, believed to comprise about 60 percent of the country's 25 million people.
Last June, he issued a fatwa demanding that the framers of the Iraqi constitution be elected rather than appointed by the Americans or the Governing Council. That forced the Americans to speed the transfer of power to Iraqis even before completion of a new constitution.
Now, his aide warned, al-Sistani may take that action again.
"If Bremer rejects the opinion of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, then he will issue a fatwa to deprive the elected council of its legitimacy," Mohammed Baqir al-Mehri, al-Sistani's representative in Kuwait, told Abu Dhabi television.
Al-Sistani has also said any agreement governing the presence of U.S.-led coalition troops in Iraq beyond July 1, the designated day for the occupation's formal end, must be ratified by an elected legislature.
An interim constitution, being drafted by the Governing Council and due to come into effect by the end of February, must also be approved by an elected chamber, he said.
Annan has written to the Governing Council saying that holding a credible election before June 30 may be impossible.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States would do everything it could to hold to the deadline.
He also announced the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Francis Ricciardone, would set up an office in Washington to oversee Iraq's transition to self-government.
At a news conference Thursday, Adnan Pachachi, the Iraqi Governing Council president, cautioned that if the deadlock is not overcome, Iraq would end up under prolonged U.S. occupation.
"We have a chance to regain our sovereignty and our power in the next five months or so, or we can opt for postponement for two years" he said.
Amid the political setback, U.S. military has reported considerable success in controlling the insurgency in central Iraq since the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam.
"The timing is perfect for the anti-coalition forces and former regime elements to make a decision that it is time to embrace the future," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, said.
"Those (insurgents) that remain at large, and given the pace that we are moving toward sovereignty, it is time for them to lay down their arms," he said.
Sanchez said daily attacks on U.S.-led coalition troops have fallen to about 15 a day compared to a few dozen previously.
The U.S. military has captured or killed all but 13 of the 55 most wanted figures from Saddam's regime. Sanchez said 360 more anti-coalition guerrillas were captured in 150 operations this week.
Still, small attacks continue to occur. A roadside bomb in Baghdad Friday injured two children. It blew up after U.S. soldiers approached a suspicious device to inspect it.
An anti-tank mine planted along a road near Tikrit blew up when a passenger bus went over it, killing at least three people and injuring another.