US: The Bush administration's nominee for ambassador to Iraq yesterday outlined the limits of sovereignty to be ceded to Iraq by the US after the handover date of June 30th, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor
Any Iraqi caretaker government would have no control over security and would not be able to pass any laws, Mr John Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as his confirmation hearings began.
His remarks follow complaints from members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, including Ahmed Chalabi and Mahmoud Othman, that a caretaker government could not operate without a decisive role in issues such as finance, reconstruction and security.
"Let's remember this is going to be a transitional government with a focus on organising elections", said Mr Negroponte, currently US ambassador to the UN, whose nomination is expected to be confirmed in a Senate vote tomorrow.
Senator Joseph Biden, the leading Democrat on the committee, urged Mr Negroponte to keep as low a profile as possible and not to act like a "superman" if he wanted to succeed. The members of the caretaker government "won't want to appear to be doing your bidding", he said.
Mr Negroponte made clear to Republican Senator Chuck Hagel that Iraqis would not have veto authority over the actions of the 135,000 US military personnel who will remain in Iraq after June 30th.
He would work towards the day when the Iraqis could take greater responsibility for their own security. "But they're not in a position to do that at this particular moment," he said.
Simultaneoulsly, in New York, the United Nations envoy to Iraq, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, briefed the UN Security Council on his proposals for a caretaker government.
Mr Brahimi, who has President George W. Bush's support in naming an interim administration "broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people", has come under attack from Israel and from conservative critics in the US for recent comments he made about the situation in the Middle East.
He told a French radio station that the "great poison in the region is this Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians" together with the "equally unjust support" of the US. He also warned the US not to attack Fallujah and Najaf.
The 70-year-old former Algerian foreign minister refused to back down yesterday, commenting: "What I said was that Israel's policies, not Israel itself, were a poison for the region, and that is the view of everybody in the region and beyond. That is a fact, not an opinion."
US officials say that Mr Brahimi remains the best person for the job because of his credibility and the role he performed in Afghanistan in 2001, when he helped to create the post-Taliban interim government.
"At this point, we will agree to anything Brahimi comes up with," an administration official was quoted as saying.
The US is expected to seek a Security Council resolution soon to support Mr Brahimi's plans and define the role of foreign troops in Iraq after June 30th.