Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2022 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Interim Governing Council Rethinks Its

Juan Cole 02/17/2004

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Interim Governing Council Rethinks its Shape

It seems increasingly likely that the national elections in Iraq scheduled for May 2004 will be pushed to December, but that the delay will not affect the handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi government by the US. The US will surrender sovereignty to an expanded Interim Governing Council, which will preside over the subsequent elections. az-Zaman and ash-Sharq al-Awsat both report that this prospect has spurred extensive rethinking. The Assyrian and Chaldean Christians have long been dissatisfied with their level of representation on the IGC, and they are pressing for more of a role in any expanded body. Some are suggesting that Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite leader who has the sympathy of between a fourth and a third of Iraqi Shiites, be given a seat. The expanded IGC may also appoint a prime minister to represent it as executive, and to make tough decisions that so far the collective body has avoided. The IGC appointed ministers to head the major ministries last summer, but never appointed a prime minister.

In ash-Sharq al-Awsat, Shiite IGC member Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said that Iraqis are agreed on three principles. 1) The sole solution to restoring the structure of Iraqi governance is (open, direct) elections; and they told Brahimi as much. 2) Sovereignty must be transferred to the Iraqis on schedule at the end of June and the occupation must end, since it cannot last longer than that. 3) A law must be issued regarding the administration of the Iraqi state that guarantees the construction of a modern, contemporary, civilized nation. The NYT reports that Rubaie has actually called for a smaller IGC to guide the transition to an elected government.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Us

Help keep independent journalism alive and donate online, or make checks payable to:
"Juan Cole"
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
(No parcels, please)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2022 All Rights Reserved

Posting....