UN experts back Iraqi Shiite leader's call for elections

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 13, 2004

UN experts back Iraqi Shiite leader's call for elections

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The head of UN experts probing the feasibility of early elections in Iraq said on Thursday that they support Iraqi top Shiite Muslim leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's call for polls in the war-torn country.

Lakhdar Brahimi, head of the UN team which was trying to bridge gap between al-Sistani and the US occupying authority over the elections issue, made the remarks after a two-hour meeting with theShiite leader at his home in the southern city of Najaf, some 180 km south of Baghdad.

Al-Sistani "is sticking to his position and we share his opiniontotally because elections are the only way to bring Iraq out of thetunnel," Brahimi said.

"We are also in agreement with him that they must be well prepared to obtain the results called for by himself and the Iraqi people," the former Algerian foreign minister said.

"Ayatollah Sistani is completely within his rights to demand theholding of elections and we are completely in agreement with him because it is the right way to resolve the Iraqi problem," Brahimi added.

Asked whether the United Nations would fear pressure from the United States to back Washington's view, Brahimi said, "as (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan has said, the international body is only in Iraq to help the people, and it is an independent and neutral organization."

Heavy security was on hand during the talks between Brahimi and al-Sistani, which took place shortly after 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Thursday after the UN team travelled in a car convoy to Najaf.

The UN team headed by Brahimi, a senior advisor to Annan, has been in Iraq to assess the feasibility of early elections for Iraq's first post-occupation government, which is due to be installed before July 1.

Annan, who gave the green light for the trip after meeting US President George W. Bush last week in Washington, has expressed hishope for the UN team "to help Iraqis in power handover" from US-ledcoalition forces despite what he called "the difficult security situation."

The US-selected interim Iraqi Governing Council and Paul Bremer,head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, signed an accord last November providing for a US handover of power to Iraqis before July1, 2004.

The United States plans to select a transitional new government through a regional caucus system ahead of the July 1 deadline for transfer of power, but the leaders of the Shiite muslims, accounting for some 60 percent of the 25 million Iraqis, have been insisting on direct elections.

Soruce: Xinhua

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