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No daylight between US, UK positions on Iraq polls: Rumsfeld
Washington, Jan 22: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that he sees `no daylight` in US and British positions over direct elections in Iraq, but said the question was whether they could be held by this summer.
Washington, Jan 22: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that he sees "no daylight" in US and British positions over direct elections in Iraq, but said the question was whether they could be held by this summer.
Rumsfeld, who briefed members of the senate behind closed doors yesterday, was asked afterwards by reporters about a British newspaper report that British Foreign Minister Jack Straw was pressing for direct elections in Iraq and Washington was inclined to go along.
"The United States has always been for direct elections. The only question was when and how fast could they be done," he said, adding that direct elections would be held on Iraq's new Constitution in any event.
"So I suspect there's no daylight between Secretary (Colin) Powell and Foreign Minister Straw," he said.
Washington last November put its weight behind a proposal to select a transitional government using a system of caucuses -- rather than direct elections -- so that sovereignty could be transferred by July 1.
But demands by Iraq's preeminent Shiite leader, grand Aytollah Ali al Sistani, for direct elections prompted Washington to turn for help to the United Nations.
The United Nations has agreed to send a team to Iraq to assess whether there is enough time before the July 1 handover deadline to organize internationally supervised elections.
"I noticed that secretary Powell and ambassador Bremer both mentioned that as long as the basic principles stay the same, why, modifications or adjustments –refinements was the word they used -- would certainly be considered," Rumsfeld said.
Bureau Report
"The United States has always been for direct elections. The only question was when and how fast could they be done," he said, adding that direct elections would be held on Iraq's new Constitution in any event.
"So I suspect there's no daylight between Secretary (Colin) Powell and Foreign Minister Straw," he said.
Washington last November put its weight behind a proposal to select a transitional government using a system of caucuses -- rather than direct elections -- so that sovereignty could be transferred by July 1.
But demands by Iraq's preeminent Shiite leader, grand Aytollah Ali al Sistani, for direct elections prompted Washington to turn for help to the United Nations.
The United Nations has agreed to send a team to Iraq to assess whether there is enough time before the July 1 handover deadline to organize internationally supervised elections.
"I noticed that secretary Powell and ambassador Bremer both mentioned that as long as the basic principles stay the same, why, modifications or adjustments –refinements was the word they used -- would certainly be considered," Rumsfeld said.
Bureau Report