Despite ongoing attacks against Iraqis and American troops, the United States remains committed to handing over power to an interim Iraqi government by the end of June, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq said Sunday.
But Paul Bremer also raised the possibility of a compromise, suggesting that the Bush administration might be open to new ideas about how the transfer of power would take place.
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“Iraqis all want sovereignty back as soon as it can be done,” Bremer said on CNN’s “Late Edition” program. “We want to be here as invited guests and no longer as an occupying force.”
The U.S. plan, announced in November, calls for regional caucuses to choose delegates to a national assembly. Those delegates would in turn select the members of an interim government, with direct elections by the end of 2005.
But the influential Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leading cleric of the nation’s Shiite Muslim majority, has called for direct elections sooner.
A team of United Nations elections experts returning from Iraq indicated last week that it would be impractical to hold direct elections before the scheduled June 30 transfer, noting that the country does not have voter rolls.
Bush administration officials are concerned that any perception that a new Iraq government was illegitimate could set back U.S. efforts. The UN team is expected to present its findings–including alternatives to the U.S. plan–to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan within 10 days.
Speaking from Baghdad, Bremer said the United States is eager to see the UN proposals.
“It may be different from the caucus plan,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “It may be a modified caucus plan. It may be some form of partial elections. It may be some mechanism of a national conference. There are literally dozens of ideas around.”
And, he said, the United States would be open to holding elections sooner, perhaps by the end of this year, if that could be done fairly.
“How can Americans be against elections?” Bremer said. “We know how important elections are to a viable, legitimate democracy. … If we can do it sooner and have it be legitimate, and if the UN and we agree that that could be done, that’s not a problem.”
Bremer’s comments came as Iraqi police reported the capture of a senior member of the Baath Party who was No. 41 on the United States’ list of most-wanted Iraqis. Mohammed Zimam Abdul Razaq was arrested, along with his son, in a Sunday afternoon raid on a Baghdad building.
The arrest came one day after Iraqi police in Fallujah suffered a devastating blow when an armed gang attacked a police station and jail, killing at least 20 people.
Bremer said the attackers appeared to be foreign fighters, perhaps trying to free–or kill–some prisoners held in the jail. As many as 87 prisoners escaped. Witnesses said Saturday that some of the attackers appeared to be Iranian or Lebanese.
“The motive may have been to release prisoners at the police station, but also to kill prisoners,” Bremer said on ABC. “There were foreigners apparently involved. We’re still looking into that to try to find out what the implications are.”
He predicted that U.S. forces would need to remain in Iraq after the June 30 hand-over. “It’s quite clear the Iraqi security forces, brave as they are, and beaten and attacked as they are, are not going to be ready by July 1,” he said on CNN.
“The president has said we will stay until the job is done. The job is to get a democratic, stable, unified Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors. And that will take time. It isn’t going to end on June 30.”
Members of Iraq’s Governing Council on Sunday condemned the Fallujah attack and said they were working to provide local police departments with more equipment and officers.
“We feel outraged at the onslaught of terror against our people,” said Samir Shakir Mahmoud, a member of the council.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Sunday that a paratrooper with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division died Saturday from injuries sustained in a vehicle rollover accident near Baghdad on Friday evening.
And, in an interview, Salem Chalabi, an Iraqi lawyer coordinating Saddam Hussein’s trial, said the toppled dictator is unlikely to stand trial for at least another two years on charges that could include genocide and crimes against humanity, according to the Guardian.
The British newspaper said delays have been caused by the need to screen judges, prepare courts and establish well-guarded jails to hold suspects.
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Kuwait on Sunday that the Governing Council would ask Washington to hand over Hussein and remove his POW status as part of the power transfer in June.
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