Members of the Iraqi Governing Council, picked by the US to serve as a transitional authority, say they were never consulted over large-scale US military moves last week, exposing deep fissures between the council and occupation authorities.
The council, which said it would have opposed the decision to confront Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and Ramadi, sent in a delegation to negotiate an end to the offensive, offering a taste of what lies ahead after the US symbolically returns sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
Some members threatened to resign and one suspended his membership.
"Are we partners with the coalition authorities in Iraqi affairs?" asked one of the members, Naseir al-Chadirchi, in a letter to the council president, Masood Barzani, that was distributed at a news conference on Monday. "The facts confirm otherwise."
He added, "The disregard of the council role and its lack of participation in taking decisions" puts the council members "in an embarrassing situation vis-a-vis the Iraqi people who ask what the council has done for the interests of the people."
He said the council often learned about the US' decisions through the press.
Other members said they were horrified by the televised images of dead Iraqis in Fallujah and reports by Iraqi doctors in the city that there were hundreds of people, including noncombatants, killed there and more than 1,000 wounded.
But after registering their complaints, they had an opportunity to introduce their own initiative, sending a delegation that negotiated a cease-fire, and becoming involved politically in talks to try to ease tensions in the southern Shiite cities.
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said on Monday in a televised news conference that the US froze its military operations at the governing council's request and to allow for cease-fire discussions and aid deliveries into Fallujah.
Barzani said in a statement on Monday that the council wanted a cease-fire, protection of civilians and an end to collective punishment. He said that if meetings with tribal and political leaders failed, a plan was needed to deal with those who act outside the law. The statement acknowledged the allied forces' responsibility for security.
Chadirchi acknowledged the horror of four US security contractors being killed and mutilated in Fallujah but said the solution chosen was the wrong one.
"The remedy is not random killing, use of force against civilians and collective punishment in all Iraq, which led to hundreds of wounded and dead," he said.
Council members also reiterated views in line with those of the coalition authorities, such as the council's opposition to terrorism and efforts to disband Sadr's Mahdi Army, the militia of renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, another council member, said Iraqis should not be fooled into thinking that it was a battle between the coalition forces and the Iraqi people.
"The real battle is the battle between the Iraqi people and international terrorists," he told a news conference.
Some council members questioned the US' pursuit of Sadr with an arrest warrant issued in connection with a cleric's murder in Najaf last year. Ahmed Barak, a council member, said Sadr's arrest warrant could be served after the Iraqi council takes over in June.
"The judicial option should be handled by Iraqis at that time," he said.
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