Report Urges Work for Results by End of Year

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 23 -- Elections to create a new national government in Iraq could be held as soon as the end of this year or early next year if work begins immediately to organize them, concludes a report released Monday by Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The U.N. report, prepared by Annan's envoy to Iraq, also backed the U.S. plan for relinquishing political authority in Iraq on June 30. It urged the U.S.-led governing authority and Iraqi leaders to work quickly to create a transitional government that would run the country until elections are held.

The United Nations is prepared to "play a supporting role" in reaching a consensus over how the transition should proceed, but Iraqis should play a leading role, envoy Lakhdar Brahimi wrote.

"I hope that we can build upon the groundwork that has been laid down and engage further with Iraqis on how to move forward," Annan said in a letter to the Security Council accompanying the report. "The U.N. remains fully committed to assisting the Iraqi people in completing the process of recovery and democratization."

U.S. officials, frustrated by the failure of their own plans for political transition in Iraq, have been waiting anxiously for Brahimi's findings, which they hope will point the way toward an orderly transfer of political power.

The report set the stage for a flurry of activity by U.S., Iraqi and U.N. officials to prepare for elections in a country in which there are no laws to govern them, let alone any voter rolls.

Brahimi said the first steps would be establishing an independent electoral commission and reaching agreement on election laws. That, he said, could be completed by late April or early May if U.S. and Iraqi officials get busy. Those moves would allow elections to be held eight months later.

But just as pressing -- and more urgent in assuring stability once the U.S. occupation ends -- is the question of what temporary government will assume control of Iraq at the end of June.

The United States had hoped to create a provisional government through a complex system of 18 regional caucuses, a plan that did not gain support among Iraqis. The caucus system, Brahimi wrote, is "not a viable option," and U.S. officials "themselves accept that it would be impractical to try and implement this system which is totally alien to Iraqis."

U.S. officials had hoped that Brahimi's report would propose an alternative plan. Instead, Brahimi outlined a "range of options" he said his team had discussed with Iraqis while on a fact-finding mission to that country this month.

Those options include expanding the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and allowing it to take control temporarily; convening a national conference of tribal and religious leaders that would create a provisional government; or setting up a transitional government of technocrats -- not politicians -- that would have limited powers.

But Brahimi said that Iraqi leaders, working with U.S. officials and the United Nations, must develop a consensus on which course to pursue.

"It is ultimately up to the people of Iraq to take the decisions required on these issues and to then implement them," Brahimi's report said. "They are more than capable of doing so."

Senior U.S. officials welcomed the U.N. report, even though it did not make specific proposals for a temporary government. They noted that it backed U.S. plans for the June 30 handover of power and for speedy elections, and said they would work closely with the United Nations to assure the transition succeeds.

President Bush said he is encouraged by the spirited, if often acrimonious, political debate underway in Iraq over the transition.

"I don't think it's all that bad that people are arguing about the nature of government," Bush said in remarks to a meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington. "We argue about government all the time here. . . . That's part of the process of heading for a society in which minority rights are recognized and human dignity is paramount."

Bush also sought to dispel concerns that the U.S. commitment to Iraq will wane as the United Nations increases its political profile in Iraq. "We're not going to cut and run," he said. "We've got to make it clear we're there to succeed, and we will."

Brahimi's report said the United Nations is prepared to help oversee the political transition and planning for elections in Iraq. But it said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority must provide appropriate security arrangements, and said the Security Council would have to adopt a new mandate reflecting the new responsibilities.

"A precondition for the United Nations to succeed in Iraq is the clear and unambiguous support of a united Security Council and the establishment of a secure environment," Annan said in his letter.

U.N. Report on Iraq (PDF)

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