Iraqis to Set Up an Interim Council to Administer Country

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/11/international/worldspecial/11IRAQ.html?ex=1058500800&en=1bc189650ad29a37&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Representatives of the major political, ethnic and religious groups of Iraq — some of them skilled politicians, some of them exile leaders coming home and others political neophytes united by their suffering under Saddam Hussein — will declare the first postwar interim government in Iraq this weekend, Western and Iraqi officials said tonight.

After eight weeks of negotiations with the American and British occupation powers, a "governing council" of between 21 and 25 members will be granted extensive executive powers. The new body of Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Turkmen will share responsibility for running the country under a United Nations resolution that will continue to vest Washington and London with ultimate authority until a sovereign government is elected and a new constitution ratified, the officials said.

There is no clear timetable for a transition to an elected government.

Iraqi political figures who have been involved in negotiations said that the process was speeded by the deteriorating security situation in Iraq and mounting American casualties from daily attacks on allied forces. That had created a sense of urgency within the Bush administration to create a credible Iraqi governing body that could help counter the negative image of foreign occupation that is being exploited by the remnants of Mr. Hussein's forces.

--snip--

In addition to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the core of the governing council would include Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, leaders of the two main Kurdish factions in northern Iraq; Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress; Iyad Alawi, head of the Iraqi National Accord; Nasir Kamel Chadirchy, a Baghdad lawyer whose father founded the first democratic party in Iraq in the 1950's; Ibrahim Jafari of the Shiite Daawa Party, and Adnan Pachachi, who was Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations in the 1960's.

[TahitiNut]

1. "help counter the negative image of foreign occupation"??

Yes, indeed; let's put some lipstick on this pig. :eyes: