U.S., BRITAIN DETAIL IRAQ PLAN AT U.N.

  Informe de Robin Wright en “The Washington Post” del 22.01.2004

 The United States and Britain have begun detailed discussions at the United Nations about the disputed U.S. plan to hand over power in Iraq, with Secretary General Kofi Annan expected to make an announcement as early as Monday that he will send a U.N. team to Iraq to help defuse the building political crisis, according to U.S., U.N. and Iraqi officials.

Two days of U.N. talks have focused on the proposed caucuses to elect a new provisional government and possible options to widen participation to make the U.S. plan acceptable to Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and tens of thousands of his followers who have taken to the streets over the past week to demand elections, U.S. and U.N. envoys say.

In Washington and Baghdad, senior Iraqi officials predicted yesterday that Sistani would back down if the United Nations concluded that elections would not be feasible before the U.S.-led coalition returns sovereignty June 30.

"Sistani is a reasonable man," Iraqi Governing Council President Adnan Pachachi told Washington Post editors and reporters yesterday. "He will accept whatever conclusion" the United Nations makes.

In Baghdad, Ibrahim Jafari, Shiite Muslim leader of the Dawa Party, also predicted that Sistani would not insist on elections in defiance of the world organization.

"If there is a U.N. delegation that has a background in electoral and census matters and has an open dialogue . . . one side may be convinced by what the other says," Jafari said. "If it comes to an agreement, I believe Sayyid Sistani will accept that."

The United States and Britain are lobbying the United Nations to name Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran U.N. diplomat and former Algerian foreign minister, to become the special representative for Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. This month, Brahimi was appointed special U.N. adviser on conflict prevention and conflict resolution, after a second two-year term as special U.N. representative in Afghanistan.

Brahimi also has the credentials the United States seeks as it rebuilds a partnership with the world body after a year of rancorous relations, U.S. officials said. Brahimi served as U.N. representative in South Africa and Haiti as they went through traumatic political transitions after internal political tensions.

The Iraqi Governing Council wants a special U.N. representative appointed during the current transition to help with the potentially more difficult phases once the occupation ends and Iraqis begin a second 18-month transition. The second period will include the writing of a constitution and the holding of nationwide democratic elections for a permanent government.

But it is unclear whether Brahimi, 70, is prepared to take up another lengthy posting in another hot spot, U.S. and U.N. officials said.

Meanwhile, Pachachi said the new Transitional Administrative Law, which will outline the transition rules and serve as a precursor to a constitution, is almost finished. The next major benchmark in the transition is to be completed by Feb. 28.

On the disputed issue of whether the Governing Council will be phased out or survive after June 30, Pachachi said the 25-member body is about evenly divided, even though the U.S. plan calls for it to be eliminated. As the new national assembly will have 250 or so members representing all sectors of Iraqi society, Pachachi said he sees no reason for the council to continue.