U.S., U.N. Seek New Leaders For Iraq
The United States and the top U.N. envoy to Iraq have decided to exclude the majority of the Iraqi politicians the U.S.-led coalition has relied on over the past year when they select an Iraqi government to assume power on June 30, U.S. and U.N. officials said yesterday.
The latest shift in policy comes as the U.S.-led coalition has to resolve some contentious and long-standing issues before the transfer takes place. Earlier this week, the coalition moved to allow former Baath Party members and military officers to return to government jobs.
At the top of the list of those likely to be jettisoned is Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite politician who for years was a favorite of the Pentagon and the office of Vice President Cheney, and who was once expected to assume a powerful role after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials acknowledged.
Chalabi has increasingly alienated the Bush administration, including President Bush, in recent months, U.S. officials said. He generated anger in Washington yesterday when he said a new U.S. plan to allow some former officials of Hussein's ruling Baath Party and military to return to office is the equivalent of returning Nazis to power in Germany after World War II.
Chalabi has headed the committee in charge of removing former Baathist officials. In a nationwide address yesterday designed to promote national reconciliation, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said complaints that the program is "unevenly and unjustly" administered are "legitimate" and that the overall program has been "poorly implemented."
That criticism may curtail Chalabi's influence over the removal of former officials -- and his power over the employment and income prospects of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
Washington is also seriously considering cutting off the $340,000 monthly stipend to Chalabi's party, the Iraqi National Congress, according to a senior administration official familiar with the discussions. This would be a major change, because the INC has received millions of dollars in U.S. aid over the past decade as the primary vehicle for supporting the Iraqi opposition.
Chalabi is part of a wider problem, however. Polls indicate that most of the 25 members of the Iraqi Governing Council have little public support nine months after they were appointed. The lack of popular backing is the main reason the United States and United Nations are seeking a new body to govern Iraq before national elections are held in January 2005, U.S. and U.N. officials said.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is in charge of picking the new government in consultation with the U.S.-led coalition, made clear yesterday that the council should disband. "They have said twice, not once, in official documents they signed, that our term will end on the 30th of June," he said in an interview on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" to be aired Sunday.
"All opinion polls, and a lot are taken in Iraq, say that people want something different" than expansion of the council because they fear council members "will clone themselves. And why do you want to have that?" Brahimi asked.
U.S. and U.N. officials generally fear that the continued involvement of too many council members will contaminate efforts to create a credible Iraqi government, they said.
Under a new U.N. proposal, Brahimi is expected to return to Baghdad around May 1 to finish discussions and then select Iraqis for 29 positions -- a prime minister to head the government, a ceremonial president and two vice presidents, plus 25 cabinet officers, U.S. officials said.
In his most specific language to date, Brahimi told ABC that these positions should be filled by "mainly technocrats" who are "widely representative" of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities.
Rather than excluding Chalabi or any other Governing Council member by name from the new government, he said that "people who have political parties and are leaders of their parties should get ready to win the election . . . and stay out of the interim government."
Some council members might be retained, but more likely in cabinet posts rather than in the top four jobs, U.S. officials said. Others could be tapped to participate in a national consultative assembly, which Brahimi has proposed should advise the provisional government.
All council members will then be free to test their political appeal in the January elections to see how they would fare without U.S. support, U.S. officials added.
With only nine weeks left until the handover, the United Nations, the coalition and Iraqis are scrambling to come up with lists of candidates for the top jobs, which Brahimi will compare when he returns to Iraq, U.S. officials said.
But the political battles are not yet over, U.S. and U.N. officials warned. Chalabi, who went into exile in 1958, is still pressing for the council to be retained in some form; he also has been a leading critic of Brahimi, a Sunni Muslim and former Algerian foreign minister, and his proposals for Iraq.
Acknowledging that Chalabi has challenged him as biased against the Shiites, Brahimi said any such suggestion is "silly." Without referring to Chalabi, he said those who are "sniping" against him on the religious issue "have agendas that have nothing to do with the fact that I am a Sunni."
But he said opponents of his new plan for Iraq's transition "may very well succeed in derailing what we are trying to do. But I think if they succeed, it will not be very good for Iraq or for the international community."
- Robin Wright and Walter Pincus
Washington Post
The latest shift in policy comes as the U.S.-led coalition has to resolve some contentious and long-standing issues before the transfer takes place. Earlier this week, the coalition moved to allow former Baath Party members and military officers to return to government jobs.
At the top of the list of those likely to be jettisoned is Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite politician who for years was a favorite of the Pentagon and the office of Vice President Cheney, and who was once expected to assume a powerful role after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials acknowledged.
Chalabi has increasingly alienated the Bush administration, including President Bush, in recent months, U.S. officials said. He generated anger in Washington yesterday when he said a new U.S. plan to allow some former officials of Hussein's ruling Baath Party and military to return to office is the equivalent of returning Nazis to power in Germany after World War II.
Chalabi has headed the committee in charge of removing former Baathist officials. In a nationwide address yesterday designed to promote national reconciliation, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said complaints that the program is "unevenly and unjustly" administered are "legitimate" and that the overall program has been "poorly implemented."
That criticism may curtail Chalabi's influence over the removal of former officials -- and his power over the employment and income prospects of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
Washington is also seriously considering cutting off the $340,000 monthly stipend to Chalabi's party, the Iraqi National Congress, according to a senior administration official familiar with the discussions. This would be a major change, because the INC has received millions of dollars in U.S. aid over the past decade as the primary vehicle for supporting the Iraqi opposition.
Chalabi is part of a wider problem, however. Polls indicate that most of the 25 members of the Iraqi Governing Council have little public support nine months after they were appointed. The lack of popular backing is the main reason the United States and United Nations are seeking a new body to govern Iraq before national elections are held in January 2005, U.S. and U.N. officials said.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is in charge of picking the new government in consultation with the U.S.-led coalition, made clear yesterday that the council should disband. "They have said twice, not once, in official documents they signed, that our term will end on the 30th of June," he said in an interview on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" to be aired Sunday.
"All opinion polls, and a lot are taken in Iraq, say that people want something different" than expansion of the council because they fear council members "will clone themselves. And why do you want to have that?" Brahimi asked.
U.S. and U.N. officials generally fear that the continued involvement of too many council members will contaminate efforts to create a credible Iraqi government, they said.
Under a new U.N. proposal, Brahimi is expected to return to Baghdad around May 1 to finish discussions and then select Iraqis for 29 positions -- a prime minister to head the government, a ceremonial president and two vice presidents, plus 25 cabinet officers, U.S. officials said.
In his most specific language to date, Brahimi told ABC that these positions should be filled by "mainly technocrats" who are "widely representative" of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities.
Rather than excluding Chalabi or any other Governing Council member by name from the new government, he said that "people who have political parties and are leaders of their parties should get ready to win the election . . . and stay out of the interim government."
Some council members might be retained, but more likely in cabinet posts rather than in the top four jobs, U.S. officials said. Others could be tapped to participate in a national consultative assembly, which Brahimi has proposed should advise the provisional government.
All council members will then be free to test their political appeal in the January elections to see how they would fare without U.S. support, U.S. officials added.
With only nine weeks left until the handover, the United Nations, the coalition and Iraqis are scrambling to come up with lists of candidates for the top jobs, which Brahimi will compare when he returns to Iraq, U.S. officials said.
But the political battles are not yet over, U.S. and U.N. officials warned. Chalabi, who went into exile in 1958, is still pressing for the council to be retained in some form; he also has been a leading critic of Brahimi, a Sunni Muslim and former Algerian foreign minister, and his proposals for Iraq.
Acknowledging that Chalabi has challenged him as biased against the Shiites, Brahimi said any such suggestion is "silly." Without referring to Chalabi, he said those who are "sniping" against him on the religious issue "have agendas that have nothing to do with the fact that I am a Sunni."
But he said opponents of his new plan for Iraq's transition "may very well succeed in derailing what we are trying to do. But I think if they succeed, it will not be very good for Iraq or for the international community."
- Robin Wright and Walter Pincus
Washington Post
publicado por MP às 17:57
