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Bremer sees `clarifications` to Iraq power transfer
Washington, Jan 17: The US civilian overseer for Iraq, Paul Bremer, said yesterday that the United States is prepared to tinker with the planned transfer of power to Iraqis as laid out in a November 15 accord.
Washington, Jan 17: The US civilian overseer for Iraq, Paul Bremer, said yesterday that the United States is prepared to tinker with the planned transfer of power to Iraqis as laid out in a November 15 accord.
"We've always said we're willing to consider refinements and that's something that we will be willing to discuss at the appropriate time," Bremer said after meeting with US President George W Bush at the White House.
The November deal calls for a transitional assembly selected in May to elect a provisional government that will assume sovereignty by July 1, but does not call general elections until late 2005.
"We are prepared to see clarifications in the process that was laid out on the November 15 agreement, the ways in which the selection of the transitional assembly is carried forward," said Bremer.
Bremer spoke after the plan drew fierce opposition from Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who on Friday threatened protests and a strike if the coalition did not back down from its plan to form an Iraqi government without direct elections.
He said that the United States has "doubts," share by UN secretary general Kofi Annan that “elections can, in fact, be called in the time frame of the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people on June 30”.
"But these are questions that obviously need to be looked at," added Bremer, who heads to New York on Monday for talks on the transfer of power in Iraq with Annan and members of Iraq's interim Governing Council.
Bureau Report
The November deal calls for a transitional assembly selected in May to elect a provisional government that will assume sovereignty by July 1, but does not call general elections until late 2005.
"We are prepared to see clarifications in the process that was laid out on the November 15 agreement, the ways in which the selection of the transitional assembly is carried forward," said Bremer.
Bremer spoke after the plan drew fierce opposition from Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who on Friday threatened protests and a strike if the coalition did not back down from its plan to form an Iraqi government without direct elections.
He said that the United States has "doubts," share by UN secretary general Kofi Annan that “elections can, in fact, be called in the time frame of the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people on June 30”.
"But these are questions that obviously need to be looked at," added Bremer, who heads to New York on Monday for talks on the transfer of power in Iraq with Annan and members of Iraq's interim Governing Council.
Bureau Report