An aide to Iraq's foremost Shiite cleric said the spiritual leader might issue a religious edict rejecting a US-backed government if his demands for direct elections are ignored.
The warning came Thursday as tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims rallied in Basra to protest a US-backed formula for choosing Iraq's new legislature.
The turnout in Basra, 550km southeast of Baghdad, estimated by British soldiers at up to 30,000, was the biggest protest organized by Shiite clerics against the power transfer plan.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and other clerics wield vast influence among Iraq's Shiites, believed to comprise about 60 percent of the country's 25 million people.
"The large crowd before you today are expressing their feeling that they don't want anything imposed on them," said cleric Ali al-Mussawi al-Safi, al-Sistani's representative in Basra. "We want to affirm our rights. We want elections in all political domains."
The US 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 clerics want direct elections, fearing the caucuses may be rigged to keep Shiites out of power.
The US is also 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.
Protesters, virtually all of them male, chanted, "Yes, yes to elections! Yes, yes to al-Sistani!" Later, they sat on the pavement listening to robed and turbaned clerics rail against the US plan.
Faced with al-Sistani's objections, US administrator Paul Bremer left Baghdad for Washington on Thursday for consultations with US President George W. Bush and his senior national security advisers.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS