IRAQ: Iraqi political leaders gave a swift rebuff yesterday to plans by the American-led authority in Baghdad to appoint the first elements of a new government, insisting instead that Iraqis must choose their own leaders, writes Rory McCarthy in Baghdad
At a meeting with the seven major political groups on Sunday, Mr Paul Bremer, the US official running the country, presented a plan under which he would appoint a political council of between 25 and 30 Iraqis to form the core of a future government.
But the parties yesterday insisted on a more democratic process.
"We think this is not the right thing to do," said Dr Hamed al-Bayati, a spokesman for the powerful Shia religious party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. He was speaking after the parties met to discuss Mr Bremer's plan.
"We believe according to the UN resolution the Iraqi people should select their own administration in consultation with the allies," Dr Bayati said. "This is a joint view of all the parties. We agreed we are going to go on with our own choice, which is an Iraqi mechanism to select an Iraqi administration." Under the latest UN security council resolution on Iraq, Iraqis have a clear right to choose their political future.
Dr Bayati said the politicians would meet Mr Bremer again as early as Friday to present their objections. Originally, the US-led authority had proposed a national political conference in Baghdad at which hundreds of delegates from dozens of different parties would elect a ruling council. That idea now appears to have been shelved in an attempt to accelerate the process of forming a new government.
Already insiders within what is now titled the coalition provisional authority have admitted that an Iraqi government will not take power for several months, perhaps a year, because of the huge task of reconstruction that still lies ahead.
The authority has already found that some of its decisions are highly unpopular. Yesterday a crowd of at least 3,000 former soldiers gathered at the heavily guarded gates of the Republican Palace, where Mr Bremer's authority is based, to protest at the decision to dissolve the 400,000-strong Iraqi army.
Many of the soldiers in the crowd threatened to begin an armed resistance against the American-led military, even using suicide bombers, unless they were given new jobs.
In a rare admission, Mr Bremer accepted yesterday that the dissolution of the military had hurt many families.