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Bremer for adherence to self-rule plan

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 17. The top American civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has asked the U.S. President, George W Bush, to stick to the plan of ending U.S. occupation of Iraq — June 30. There are enough indications that Washington is willing to make changes to the plan which is vehemently opposed by the Shia cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Mr. Bremer was in Washington on Friday meeting members of the National Security and Mr. Bush. The Ayatollah has called for direct popular elections and rejected the American plan of regional caucuses selecting a transitional assembly which will pick an interim government.

"These are questions that, obviously, need to be looked at," Mr. Bremer remarked after meeting Mr. Bush even while expressing `doubts' that demands of direct elections prior to June 30 could be met. "We're intending to stick to the timeline that we've laid out."

But senior administration officials have made it known that this Republican administration is willing to look at suggestions; and Washington is seeking to actively lean on the U.N. for some direct assistance in the process. "We're willing to discuss refinements or improvements," said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan.

Mr. Bremer will be in New York on Monday to have a series of meetings with United Nations and Iraqi officials. The U.S. which is keen on the world body running an eventual election in Iraq takes comfort in the fact that the U.N. also believes that direct elections for the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people cannot be held by June 30.

The Bush administration is planning its diplomatic offensives in at least two or three different ways: it is thinking of sending out a number of top envoys to meet the Ayatollah; it is stepping up its activity at the world body hoping to convince it of taking on a larger role in the evolving political process in Iraq; and at the same time working on leading capitals in Europe and Russia.

The U.S. went to war in Iraq last March without the backing of the U.N. Security Council; and now the world body is not very keen on playing a role in Iraq where the Bush administration has said that it will be calling the key shots. Even from an electoral point of view, the U.N. is not too keen on playing any role in the so-called caucuses process.

On the diplomatic/envoys front, The Washington Post has reported that the U.S. is keen on having the new U.N. envoy to Iraq, Lakdhar Brahimi, go to Baghdad and become some kind of a "chief broker" to end the standoff with Ayatollah Sistani and others. "Brahimi speaks Arabic. He's Muslim. He could be a persuasive interlocutor," an unnamed senior official has been quoted in The Post.

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