- The Bush administration was accused yesterday of undermining
the work of the UN envoy attempting to put together an interim Iraqi government,
by suggesting that a respected nuclear scientist was tipped to be prime
minister.
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- The spokesman for Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy in Baghdad,
reacted with fury after US officials were quoted as saying that Hussain
Shahristani had emerged as the leading candidate. Mr Shahristani, a Shia,
spent almost a decade in prison under Saddam Hussein after refusing to
build a nuclear weapon, but he escaped into exile in 1991.
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- "There is no final list yet, we are still working
on it," said the spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, who denied that Mr Shahristani
was the leading contender for the post. "Now his life could be in
danger," he added, now that Mr Shahristani's name had been leaked.
"This is a dangerous city." In New York, a UN spokesman Fred
Eckhard said the report in yesterday's Washington Post was "pure speculation
which is not helpful to the process".
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- Mr Brahimi is working against the clock to announce a
government of 30 people by next Monday, with the delicate task of striking
a viable balance among all the Iraqi factions. "He is getting into
the endgame of this, but a number of names are still in play for the top
jobs," said an official. While the lower level positions have been
agreed, Mr Brahimi's private consultations have intensified as he attempts
to nail down Iraqi approval for the positions of president, prime minister,
and two vice-presidents.
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- UN and British officials dismissed suggestions that the
Americans had a sinister motive in putting out Mr Shahristani's name, and
said that the information was simply out of date. Asked whether the Americans
might have been trying to "bounce" Mr Shahristani into the post,
a senior British official replied that "it was just a leak".
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- Mr Shahristani, who had the support of the British Government
as he had worked as a visiting professor in Britain, was apparently in
the frame for the position of prime minister. But his candidacy ran into
difficulties when Mr Brahimi held further consultations with a range of
Iraqis, including the influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini
Sistani. The formation of the Iraqi government is a crucial step towards
the adoption of a UN resolution which is to officially end the occupation
of Iraq, transfer political sovereignty to the Iraqis and map out the future
towards an elected government.
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- The Anglo-American resolution was presented to the UN
Security Council on Monday, but ran into immediate difficulties from France,
Germany and Russia which are insisting on "real sovereignty"
for the Iraqi interim government which is to take power on 1 July.
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- Among other contenders for the top posts is Adnan Pachachi,
a Sunni who served as foreign minister in the 1960s and who is being touted
as a possible president. Ibrahim Jaaferi, a potential vice-president, and
Mr Pachachi are two of the only members of the current US-appointed Governing
Council to command the respect of ordinary Iraqis.
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- Dr Jaaferi is one of the leaders of the Dawa party, a
Shia faction that was opposed to Baathist rule and banned under the Saddam
regime. Unusually, the Shia Dr Jaaferi is respected by Sunnis. Some Sunnis
even said yesterday that if there were an election, they would vote for
him.
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- By contrast, the name suggested to fill the other of
the two vice-presidencies, Jalal Talabani, is one that will not please
Iraq's Arabs, both Sunni and Shia. Mr Talabani's past, leading a Kurdish
rebellion against Arab rule, and the fact that he was seen as close to
Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, would make him a particularly unpopular
choice. He is one of the two Kurdish leaders who control the Kurdish north
of Iraq.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=525308
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