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Posted on 05/05/2003 7:01:26 AM PDT by areafiftyone
BAGHDAD - A council of up to nine Iraqis will probably lead the country’s still unformed interim government through the coming months, the American civil administrator said on Monday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner also said he expects the newly appointed L. Paul Bremer, former head of the State Department’s counter terrorism office, to take charge of the political process within the US postwar administration.
“What you may see is as many as seven, eight, nine leaders working together to provide leadership,” Garner said. He added, though, that he didn’t know how the collective leadership would function specifically.
The Iraqi leaders Garner referred to were Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress; Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord; and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose elder brother heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The five met several times late last week, and at least one meeting was attended by White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. Garner said the group would probably be expanded to include, for example, a Christian and·erhaps another Sunni leader. Bremer is expected to arrive in Iraq by next week, Garner said.
“He will get more involved in the political process. I’m doing all of it and don’t want to do all of it. ... We really need a dedicated effort,” on the political side, Garner said.
He said the appointment of someone such as Bremer had been planned all along and that he was intended to be here temporarily.
“I’ll stay a while. There’s got to be a good handoff,” he said.
Garner spoke as he prepared to leave for a one-day trip to Basra, where he will be visiting a school, a hospil and an oil refinery and will be conferring with a local sheik.
Garner’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance has been working with the US military to restore order in Iraq.
The retired general blamed UN sanctions for gasoline shortages that have made some Iraqis angry at American forces, The New York Times reported Monday.
“Put in there that the UN really need at least with a good prospect of being stood up and getting the law enforcement system back,” Garner said.
He said one disappointment thus far has been his operation’s inability to inaugurate an extensive television and radio broadcast system for Iraq. The satellite TV service broadcasting so far has been available to only a few Iraqis.
“We haven’t done a good job,” Garner said. “I want TV going to the people ... with a soft demeanor, programs they want to see.”
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