Iraqis want to scrap US power transfer plan

The UN chief in Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi (L), shake hands with the current President of the Iraqi Governing Council, Mohsen Abdel-Hamid (R), following a meeting with Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad yesterday. Brahimi said the timing of elections in the war-torn country should not be tied to specific deadline but the timing should be flexible to allow for good preparations.. PHOTO: AFP

Support for this plan appeared strongest among the 13 Shiite council members.

Doubts about the complex US caucus plan, announced Nov. 15, were expressed Friday to UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi during a meeting with the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

"We have agreed that the timing should not be a prisoner to any deadlines. We need to organize elections as early as possible, but not earlier than possible. All Iraqis agreed that elections is the only way to form the permanent Iraqi government." Brahimi told reporters.

Under the US blueprint, 18 regional caucuses would pick a new legislature, which in turn would choose a provisional government to take power June 30 and serve until elections in 2005.

However, the Shiite Muslim clergy, led by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has demanded legislative elections before the handover. Many top Iraqi politicians also opposed the plan because it gave the United States too much influence over the process, an official close to the discussions said.

Brahimi's team arrived Sunday to find ways to break the impasse. Opposition to the US plan among the Governing Council is significant because it was a signatory of the Nov. 15 agreement, along with the US-led occupation authority.

The political wrangling comes as US forces and Iraqis who cooperate with them are faced with increased violence by insurgents believed to be aimed at wrecking the transfer of power.

In Baghdad, an explosion killed an American soldier and wounded two others, the US military said yesterday. The blast hit a military police patrol Thursday night in Abu Ghraib, in the western part of the capital, though the type of explosive used was not yet known, a US military spokesman said.

Back-to-back suicide bombings Tuesday and Wednesday killed 100 Iraqis, many of them would-be volunteers looking to join the new police or military forces.