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:: 5.31.2004 ::
:: RE Iraq ::
US fails to talk round defiant council
Deadlock on choice of president delays unveiling of government
Luke Harding and Michael Howard in Baghdad
From The Guardian UK
The UN's special envoy to Iraq failed to unveil the new interim government yesterday after a second day of embarrassing wrangling between the US and the governing council.
Lakhdar Brahimi had said he would announce it by the end of May, ahead of the formal transfer of sovereignty in 30 days' time. But his plan was delayed again, apparently at the US's request, after the governing council refused to endorse Washington's choice of Iraq's first post-Saddam president, 81-year-old Adnan Pachachi.
Council members have insisted that Sheikh Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, the council's president, should get the job.
"The Americans have asked for the meeting to be delayed until today," said Dr Mahmoud Othman, a leading member of the US-appointed council. "The coalition seems to be trying to interfere in every single decision, in every cabinet post and every ministry.
"If the new administration is not elected by Iraqis then at least it can be appointed by Iraqis ... the way Mr Bremer and Mr Brahimi are behaving is not a good model for the future."
Coalition officials stress that the unelected and widely unpopular governing council is "just one of the many" groups and organisations being consulted in Mr Brahimi's "nationwide" search for a government acceptable to all.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 11:07:00 PM [+] ::
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