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:
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS