Delays and Split on Iraqi Council Imperil U.S. Plan

[kskiska]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 25 — A powerful cleric's demand for quick elections has delayed the drafting of an interim constitution and created a serious new split in the Iraqi Governing Council, officials said Sunday, further undermining the Bush administration's troubled plan for a political transition in Iraq.

Without an interim constitution, which is supposed to be completed in less than five weeks, the entire timetable for an American transfer of power to an Iraqi government by June 30 could be disrupted. And the divide in the Governing Council has presented the American authorities with a new complication in pushing their plan for a caucus-style process for selecting a transitional national assembly, which now seems increasingly endangered. Many Shiite Arab council members are supporting direct elections, while Sunni Arab and Kurdish members say it is impossible to hold them.

The underlying obstacle to the Bush administration's plans is the unrelenting demand of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, for direct elections for the assembly.

American officials and the reclusive cleric, through his representatives, say they are counting on the United Nations to send a team to Iraq to determine whether direct elections are possible, given the continuing insurgent war and lack of voter rolls. Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, is expected to announce as early as Monday whether he will send such a team.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/01/26/international/middleeast/26IRAQ.html?hp

[Barrett808]

1. Playing us like a fiddle

We are completely at the mercy of the various feuding factions...train wreck real close now.