UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is prepared to send his top adviser back to Baghdad to help form an interim government if Iraqi leaders cannot agree on a plan to assume power when the US-led occupation ends in June, UN officials have said. Annan on Thursday sided with the US, saying that elections in Iraq before the political transfer of power on 30 June were not feasible. He also said that the date for restoring sovereignty preferred by Washington "must be respected." However, he did not give any proposals for a caretaker government to take power in June, saying that Iraqis should determine its shape before the world body steps in.
"We have absolutely no preferred options," Annan told reporters. "We need to have the Iraqis discuss it. They must take ownership, discuss it among themselves, and we will try and work with them to find a consensus." UN officials said it was likely that Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and senior adviser to Annan, would go to Iraq for another visit and help mediate a formula if the Iraqis and the US-led coalition did not produce one. The Bush administration, which is trying to re-engage the United Nations in efforts to stabilise the country, had asked the world body to come up with proposals for Iraq's political future before and after the 30 June transfer of power.
Original US plans for the handover, which involved regional caucuses choosing an assembly that would select a government, were derailed after a leading Iraqi Shi'ite cleric demanded early direct elections. US officials have now publicly acknowledged that the caucus system is no longer possible. "It looked like a caucus system for finding a transitional assembly and a transitional government might have worked, but it does not appear that the caucus system has the support needed for it to work," Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC Radio in an interview on Thursday. Annan, who leaves for a visit to Japan on Friday, intends to submit a report soon, giving a timeframe for future elections in Iraq.
Source: Reuters
