Talks on an interim authority to govern post-conflict Iraq today begin in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.
Around 50 people from across the country, representing Kurds, Sunni and Shia Muslims, as well as a similar number of exiles, will attend the talks. They will be the first in a series of meetings to decide on the country’s future.
However, division exists, especially over Washington’s plans to install retired US General Jay Garner as the authority’s immediate leader. One of the largest Shia groups, the Iranian-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is staging a boycott in protest at the US’s involvement.
”Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government,” said Abdul Aziz Hakim, one of the group’s leaders. ”Anything other than this tramples the rights of the Iraqi people, and will be a return to the era of colonisation.”
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who is visiting Qatar today, put a brave face on the absences, saying he was glad ”politics had broken out” in Iraq.
”These Shias feel able to express their opinions. Under the Saddam regime, if they had expressed opinions like that, they would have ended up in the torture chambers or dead,” Straw said.
He warned the UN security council not to ”play games” with the reconstruction of Iraq. ”It is a responsibility of all members … not to play games but to recognise this new reality and to move forward,” he said.
Brigadier General Tim Cross, the leading British official in Gen Garner’s team, said that one thing united the Iraqi groups. ”I think they want us to leave as quickly as possible,” he explained. ”They want to be responsible for their own country again.”
Brig-Gen Cross said that the interim administration could begin handing power back to Iraqi officials within three to six months.
Gen Garner, who will chair the talks, said that he was concerned at the slow start to the process.
”My fear right now is every day we delay, we’re probably losing some momentum, and there’s perhaps some vacuums in there getting filled that we won’t want filled,” he told USA Today.
Ahmad Chalabi, the high-profile Iraqi businessman favoured by the Pentagon as a potential leader for Iraq, is sending a representative to the talks rather than attending them himself. However, he said that he thought Gen Garner’s involvement was a good sign for Iraq’s future.
”We see General Garner’s commitment as a very serious and positive sign for the future of Iraq and a democratic Iraq, and I don’t think he is going to run politically the country.
”He’s going to help us set up a civil administration, and help assist us in getting all the civil administration propped up very soon, and that’s the way we see it.
”We think Iraq should be ruled by Iraqis and it will be ruled by Iraqis.”
Normality begins to return to capital
Baghdad was today slowly returning to a semblance of normality after three weeks of air raids and four days of near-anarchy.
The occasional distant crackle of gunfire could be heard and, with water and power supplies still cut, hundreds of Iraqis protested over the lack of security and public services.
But deliveries of humanitarian aid, including food, water and medical supplies, have increased as security fears begin to ease.
The Rome-based World Food Programme said that food shipments into northern Iraq through Turkey would soon be running at 2 000 tonnes per day. Unicef said trucks carrying 120 000 litres of drinking water were due to cross from Iran into southern Iraq today. – Guardian Unlimited Â