IRAQ: Iraq's most powerful cleric yesterday declared US offers of compromise for a power handover this summer "unacceptable" unless they promised full elections, an aide said, writes Jack Fairweather in Najaf
The comments offer little hope that a stand-off between the cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and the American-led administration will be resolved without a complete overhaul of US plans.
The ayatollah is implacably opposed to proposals to use a national caucus instead of the ballot box to select the country's first sovereign government.
The call for elections before the June 30th handover of sovereignty from the US to Iraq was supported yesterday by Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the Governing Council who is well regarded in Washington, though less so in Iraq itself.
"Direct elections are possible," Mr Chalabi told a think-tank conference in Washington. "Seek to make them possible and they will be possible."
Mr Chalabi, who is a leading council member, said census experts in Iraq believed a vote registry could be organised quickly despite US assertions that it would take too long.
Last week the US governor in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, flew to New York to seek the United Nations' help in solving the crisis. US officials wanted the UN to decide on whether elections could be held by the June 30th deadline, in the hope that Ayatollah Sistani would be satisfied with a UN ruling.
Administrators in Iraq have long said there is not enough time to set up an electoral roll or the security for full elections by the summer.
But with Secretary General Kofi Annan yet to rule on a UN deployment, Ayatollah Sistani yesterday insisted elections must be held.
Sheikh Akram Abu Mustafa, speaking for the ayatollah, said: "It doesn't matter whether the UN is here or not. Seyed Sistani has made up his mind that he wants elections."
In comments that will further trouble Iraq's US-led administration, Abu Mustafa said Ayatollah Sistani was growing increasingly frustrated with the deadlock and was likely to order more protests. "The whole area [southern Iraq] is ready to rise up in protest should Seyed Sistani signal his displeasure."
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have already taken to the streets over the past week in support of Ayatollah Sistani's stance, an indication of the massive support enjoyed by the cleric. The spiritual head of Iraq's majority Shiite community, Ayatollah Sistani also commands respect across the religious and ethnic spectrum for forming the only effective political opposition to the US occupation.