Reluctance to Share Control in Iraq Leaves U.S. on Its Own (washingtonpost.com): "NEW YORK -- To rebuild Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration wanted control and it wanted international help on U.S. terms. A difficult few days of personal diplomacy at the United Nations last week confirmed that President Bush cannot have both, so he has settled for control."
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Security fears, coupled with the uncertainty about what role the Bush administration will permit, mean that no significant U.N. presence is likely for weeks -- or longer -- said senior U.N. officials and Security Council diplomats.
On the positive side, a European diplomat in New York said Bush administration emissaries made progress in convincing their counterparts that the U.S. government does not want to remain an occupying power. What remains, however, is "a competition of ideas on how to reach the common object of a democratic, stable Iraq."
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Yet officials from among the 10 elected members of the U.N. Security Council took heart from a give-and-take with Powell, who said he had limited maneuvering room but wanted to explore all possibilities before the Bush administration returns with a new proposal.
Powell asked his counterparts to react, for example, to the idea of creating a provisional government backed by Iraq's 1958 constitution. The provisional government, an option favored by Ahmed Chalabi, a senior member of the Iraqi Governing Council, would presumably be stronger than the existing body appointed by U.S. civilian coordinator L. Paul Bremer.
Annan lobbied visiting dignitaries to support the provisional government idea, shifting the proposed U.S. sequence to grant a measure of sovereignty to Iraqis before elections are held. He said it would eliminate the U.S. occupation opposed by many Iraqis and prevent a rush to complete a constitution and vote before Iraqis are ready.
"It's highly questionable whether they can complete a plausible and credible constitutional process before next April," a U.N. official said. "Why rush it?"
Chalabi angered the administration by declaring the Governing Council ready to take significant responsibility in Iraq. Although he later tempered his comments, he continued to tell diplomats in private that the Iraqis deserve more authority.
One foreign official who spoke with him summed up Chalabi's pitch this way: "We are not in a mood to wait. We think we can do a lot of this ourselves better than the Americans can. We can do this better than Bremer."
The Bush administration strongly disagrees, and has said so.
>
Security fears, coupled with the uncertainty about what role the Bush administration will permit, mean that no significant U.N. presence is likely for weeks -- or longer -- said senior U.N. officials and Security Council diplomats.
On the positive side, a European diplomat in New York said Bush administration emissaries made progress in convincing their counterparts that the U.S. government does not want to remain an occupying power. What remains, however, is "a competition of ideas on how to reach the common object of a democratic, stable Iraq."
>
Yet officials from among the 10 elected members of the U.N. Security Council took heart from a give-and-take with Powell, who said he had limited maneuvering room but wanted to explore all possibilities before the Bush administration returns with a new proposal.
Powell asked his counterparts to react, for example, to the idea of creating a provisional government backed by Iraq's 1958 constitution. The provisional government, an option favored by Ahmed Chalabi, a senior member of the Iraqi Governing Council, would presumably be stronger than the existing body appointed by U.S. civilian coordinator L. Paul Bremer.
Annan lobbied visiting dignitaries to support the provisional government idea, shifting the proposed U.S. sequence to grant a measure of sovereignty to Iraqis before elections are held. He said it would eliminate the U.S. occupation opposed by many Iraqis and prevent a rush to complete a constitution and vote before Iraqis are ready.
"It's highly questionable whether they can complete a plausible and credible constitutional process before next April," a U.N. official said. "Why rush it?"
Chalabi angered the administration by declaring the Governing Council ready to take significant responsibility in Iraq. Although he later tempered his comments, he continued to tell diplomats in private that the Iraqis deserve more authority.
One foreign official who spoke with him summed up Chalabi's pitch this way: "We are not in a mood to wait. We think we can do a lot of this ourselves better than the Americans can. We can do this better than Bremer."
The Bush administration strongly disagrees, and has said so.
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