UN officials have virtually ruled out elections in Iraq before a transfer of power on June 30 but might be able to schedule them before the end of the year, diplomats said yesterday.
But they said a caucus system proposed by the US, at least in the form Washington had wanted, was no longer on the table. However, the envoys believed some transfer of power would take place on June 30, and not be delayed until after elections.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a senior adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is in Iraq this week to resolve a dispute over how a provisional government would be formed in Baghdad before the US-led occupation relinquishes power to Iraqis.
The White House, after scorning the world body for months, requested Annan to intervene when an influential Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, insisted on direct elections rather than caucuses for members of a national assembly that would choose an interim government.
Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, met Sistani on Thursday. He is expected to go to Kuwait for a regional meeting today. Annan expects to give his recommendations on the election process before the end of the month.
"We are in agreement with the Sayyid [Sistani] that these elections should be well prepared and should take place in the best possible conditions so that it would bring the results which the Sayyid wants, the Iraqi people want and the United Nations wants," Brahimi told reporters.
In New York, Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the secretary-general understood there was "a consensus emerging" for direct elections as a result of talks Brahimi had with a variety of Iraqi leaders.
But Annan made clear requirements for elections would take time and Sistani understood this.
"There is wide agreement that elections must be carefully prepared, and that they must be organized in technical, security and political conditions that give the best chance of producing a result that reflects the wishes of the Iraqi electorate," Eckhard said.
The US plan calls for a series of complicated caucuses to select a legislature and then an interim government before June 30. After that, the goal was to write a constitution and hold elections by the end of 2005 for a permanent government.
legitimate government
"Everyone expects elections by 2005," Eckhard said.
"The question is what can be done before June 30 and if it can't be elections what other way can you find to establish a legitimate government," he said.
The diplomats said some transfer of power would take place on June 30 but that elections could not be held before then.
"They might possibly be able to do it by the end of the year but this is not certain," one UN envoy said.
Alternatives to the caucus system, however, have not yet been agreed upon.
Among them are expanding the current US-selected Iraqi Governing Council or forming another body made up of a sort of council of elders.
Another proposal has been for the UN to administer Iraq until elections for a permanent government could be held, a suggestion UN officials would be reluctant to accept, mainly for security reasons.
Brahimi's electoral team is the first UN international presence in Iraq since Annan pulled out foreign staff in late October after two bombing attacks against UN offices in Baghdad.
Despite US urging, Brahimi, who just returned from a two-year stint of nation-building in Afghanistan, has refused to replace Vieira de Mello as the permanent UN envoy.
Also see story:
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS