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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Brahimi backing off UN-crat administration plan? |
| 2004-05-10 |
| Hard to make out whatâs going on here, but it seems to be for the good. Plus Chalabiâs political obituary may have been a bit premature... As critics say his tune changed under pressure from Washington and Iraqis, aides to U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi insisted yesterday that far from retreating, he is on top of the political process in Iraq and will see it through until a new government is in place. Mr. Brahimiâs plan to entrust the caretaker government to the hands of Iraqis with no political aspirations has been criticized, among others, by some who doubted there are enough able âtechnocrats.â The caretaker government is scheduled to assume partial sovereignty by June 30. âWe never used the term technocrats,â Mr. Brahimiâs spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, told The New York Sun yesterday. Speaking from Baghdad, where Mr. Brahimi arrived last Thursday, he added that the political ambitions of Iraqis who would assume sovereignty from the American-led coalition on July 1 âwas never the issue.â But in a briefing to the Security Council late April, Mr. Brahimi said, âMembers of the caretaker government must be careful not to use their positions to try and give advantage to any political party or group,â adding that to prevent even such a perception it would be best if they âchoose not to stand for electionsâ scheduled for January 2005. This was seen by diplomats at the time as an attempt to isolate the Iraqi National Congress leader, Ahmad Chalabi, who has been a longtime critic of Mr. Brahimi and was seen as losing support even among some ardent Washington backers. Yesterday, Mr. Chalabi said that Mr. Brahimi âhas changed his position since heâs come back to Baghdad, totally.â In an interview on CNN yesterday, he added that the U.N. envoy has âcome to recognize the need for the new government to have political support.â He also stressed he did not see himself a candidate âfor any government position.â According to a press report yesterday, it was the Bush administration that pushed Mr. Brahimi to alter his plan so that politicians could participate in the provisional government alongside professionals. âThe government is going to have both technocrats and people of political stature,â an senior administration official told the New York Times. âItâs important to have both sides in the government.â According to Mr.Fawazi,however,Mr. Brahimi never ruled out âpolitical or ideologicalâ affiliation. Further, rather than a âplanâ of his own, Mr. Brahimiâs council briefing was a result of consultations and was based on âcommon denominatorsâ among Iraqis. INC spokesman Entifadh Qanbar told U.N. reporters Friday, âTo have somebody from outside the country, who is an Arab nationalist, who had some great support for Saddam in the past, to come and rule the political process in Iraq, is not acceptable.â Speaking on al-Iraqiya television this weekend, Mr. Brahimi countered he had no agenda of his own.âWe came to serve the interests of the Iraqi people,â he said. Mr. Fawzi said that Mr. Brahimi, who has also been criticized for his style of âshuttle diplomacy,â plans to stay in Baghdad this time until the composition of the caretaker government is complete. That is, Mr. Fawzi added, âUnless we fail.â |
| Posted by:someone |
#3 We came to serve the interests of the Iraqi peopleThen get the fuck OUT! |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-05-10 11:24:38 PM |
| #2 Mr. Brahimi countered he had no agenda of his own.âWe came to serve the interests of the Iraqi people,â Seems the UN boys (and Russians, French, Arabs, ...) served themselves quite well with Iraqi Oil for Bribes money. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-05-10 10:54:52 PM |
| #1 The Iraqis have the veto. The US holds the purse strings. Brahimi is beginning to learn that he has two daddys. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-10 10:43:45 PM |