U.N. envoy proposes caretaker government

NEW YORK — U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday suggested that a caretaker Iraqi government led by a president and prime minister could replace the U.S.-created Iraqi Governing Council as an interim authority in Iraq.

Mr. Brahimi’s proposal, presented at the end of an 11-day visit to Baghdad and Mosul, is an attempt to circumvent the looming political void that many fear if there is no government in place when the Coalition Provisional Authority is dismantled on June 30.

In an effort to give Iraqis a voice, if not a vote, Mr. Brahimi also stressed the creation of a consultative council, similar to Afghanistan’s “loya jirga,” to serve alongside the government.

“The all-important aim is promoting national dialogue, consensus-building and national reconciliation in Iraq,” Mr. Brahimi told reporters in Baghdad yesterday.

It was not clear from the veteran diplomat’s remarks how senior officials of the administration would be selected or appointed. However, he said he was confident that arrangements could be made by May.

The problem of security continues to plague the political process, seriously constricting the Brahimi team’s ability to travel throughout the country and casting a shadow over the feasibility of popular elections.

He noted yesterday that because of the insecurity, his team only was able to leave Baghdad to visit Mosul, in the north. However, he said he was able to meet with a variety of political, cultural and religious figures, as well as academics, union leaders, members of the Governing Council and tribal leaders.

Mr. Brahimi, who was joined by Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Governing Council for April, tried to rein in Iraqi expectations.

“Sovereignty will be handed over, but the 150,000 soldiers that are here are not going to disappear on the 1st of July,” he noted.

Mr. Brahimi, who recently oversaw a yearlong transition in Afghanistan, has warned Washington repeatedly about the dangers of pushing democracy too quickly.

“I am absolutely confident that most Iraqi people want a simple formula for this interim period of just six or seven months,” he said. “They want a government of competent, honest and independent people as far as possible.”

In an acknowledgement of Iraq’s increasingly fragmented religious and ethnic groups, the diplomat said that “realities here” dictated a president and two vice presidents, presumably a Shi’ite leader with Sunni and Kurdish deputies.

Mr. Brahimi, a secular Sunni and former foreign minister of Algeria, appears to have the respect of the Bush administration, which has been stymied on how to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqi people on July 1.

U.S. officials quickly abandoned their planned series of caucuses after Iraqi groups rejected them as too complex and too beholden to Washington.

Administration officials had been leaning toward keeping the Governing Council, but expanding its membership to include more Shi’ites, more women and other groups that are not adequately represented.

The 25 original members were selected by civilian Administrator L. Paul Bremer. One of them, Akila al-Hashimi, was fatally shot in Baghdad in September.

Yesterday, Mr. Bremer welcomed Mr. Brahimi’s recommendations.

“We hope that the U.N. will continue to use its expertise to play a vital role in advising Iraq as it moves forward with its political transition,” he said.

Mr. Brahimi stressed yesterday that his “sketch” for a transitional government still must be discussed with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Security Council and the Iraqis themselves.

“There is no substitute for the legitimacy that comes from free and fair elections,” he said. “Therefore, Iraq will have a genuinely representative government only after January 2005.”