The unscheduled summit in Washington over the future of Iraq reflected intense White House unease about the way the situation is unravelling in the country.
Paul Bremer, who flew back to Baghdad on Wednesday night, has been leading a Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) that has become frustrated with the work of the Iraqi Governing Council.
In private, American and British officials in the CPA can barely disguise their disappointment at a body that has been criticised for tardiness and inefficiency.
The council, now 24 people, was intended to be an advisory group, but under pressure from Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations special representative killed in a bombing in August, it was handed more responsibility. United States officials hoped its members would quickly choose a leader, then appoint ministers. But it took several weeks even to decide who should be president and, in the end, settled on a compromise: nine of them would lead the council in a rotating presidency.
Weeks later ministers were named, but the council has yet to make a decision on its most important task: the creation of a committee to draft Iraq’s new constitution — the Americans had hoped the drafting would begin as early as last August. Last month a committee reported to the council on forming a group to write the constitution. Yet no decision has been taken on its proposals.
Officials complain that several council members are routinely absent from the three days of meetings each week, often leaving only four or five of the original members at the table.
For their part, the Iraqis on the council are aware that as US appointees they lack the legitimacy of an elected body.
They say they lack authority and that key decisions are taken without reference to the council.
”The governing council should not alone bear the responsibility
for any inefficiency,” Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd member of the council, told the Associated Press. ”This is supposed to be a partnership based on equality, but when the Americans want to find a solution for their problems, they do it in any way that suits them.”
Mouwafak al-Rabii, a Shi’ite Muslim member of the governing council and a human rights activist, also rejected criticism of the council’s performance, saying it is facing complex issues. ”We need to negotiate and have a dialogue to reach a decision,” he told the Associated Press. ”And when we do that, then we shall have to talk with our [coalition] partners, differ, negotiate and compromise with them.”
Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for the Pentagon-backed council member Ahmed Chalabi, on Wednesday said: ”The only solution is that the council [gets] full powers and sovereignty.”
Several council members were furious last month when they found the Americans had agreed to send Iraqi police to Jordan for training. Many in Iraq still remember Jordan as an ally of Saddam Hussein. The council was angry again when it learned that the US had invited Turkish troops into Iraq. Weeks of complaints from the council appear to have succeeded in having that plan shelved.
Council members have also pressed to take more control over security in Iraq, and until now their plans have largely met with resistance from the Americans.
All of the 24 are likely targets for the guerrilla movement because of their perceived support for the Americans. Aqila al-Hashimi, one of only three women on the council, was shot dead outside her home in September.
On Wednesday an American soldier opened fire on a car carrying another council member, Mohammad Bahr al-Uloom, near the American military zone in Baghdad. Although Uloom was unhurt, his driver was injured. — Â