Juan Cole

The Annan Plan for Iraq The London daily ash-Sharq al-Awsat says it has acquired an advance draft of comments UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will make on Monday regarding the future of Iraq and the procedure for elections. It says there are five points: 1) General elections must be held with a guarantee of constitutionality […]

Kurds’ demand for Autonomy Roils IGC The Washington Post reports that the issues of the nature of federalism and the rights of minorities and provinces with regard to Iraq’s Kurds are creating a deadlock in the Interim Governing Council as it polishes the Fundamental Law that will serve as a constitution until a new one […]

2 US Soldiers and an Iraqi Killed near Khalidiyah Wire services report: ‘Two US soldiers and an Iraqi have been killed by a roadside bomb near the city of Khalidiya, west of Baghdad. Earlier, an Iraqi policeman was wounded in an attack on an American convoy in Baquba, northeast of the capital.”

Al-Zarqawi Rebuffed The NYT reports that US suveillance of “chatter” among suspected terrorists suggests to them that al-Qaeda has decided not to get involved in Iraq, as Zarqawi had proposed. al-Hayat profiled Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (i.e. Ahmad Fadl Nizal al-Khala’ilah) today. It says he is from al-Zarqa, a town near the capital of Amman. He […]

Al-Karbala’i calls for Resignation of Provincial Council AFP/ash-Sharq al-Awsat report that Shaykh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala’i, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in the holy city of Karbala, called on the members of the provincial council there to submit their resignations because “their appointment was by an American decision, and there had been no consultation […]

Demonstrations for Elections in Najaf The Iranian news agency is reporting that thousands of demonstrators came out in the shrine city of Najaf in Iraq on Friday to demand early elections: ‘In Najaf, thousands of demonstrators clamored in the streets for elections, defying the United States and the United Nations. And Sistani’s representative in the […]

Annan: No Direct Elections are Possible before July 1 The Washington Post reports the following: Kofi Annan did as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani asked, and delivered a considered judgment about whether direct elections can be held before June 30. Annan’s answer: No. That is not the answer Sistani wanted (see below). The US plan to […]

Iran, Iraq and Two Shiite Visions Veteran Middle East reporter Nicholas Blanford writes in the Christian Science Monitor about Grand Ayatollah Sistani and the implications of his movement for Iran. It is a fine, subtly argued piece. I think that if Iraq is able to hold and sustain regular parliamentary elections, with the Shiite clerics […]

Sistani Interview in Der Spiegel If the article coming out on Saturday in Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, is accurate, it seems to me to portend significant difficulties ahead for the US. Sistani clearly is insisting on a new United Nations Security Council Resolution that would set out the procedures and timetable for free […]