L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, on Monday rebuffed a demand from the country's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric for early elections that many analysts say would put power into the hands of the country's large and impoverished Shiite majority. Bremer said that a plan devised last November for a transitional assembly created through a system of regional caucuses would proceed despite the opposition of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The caucus system is "the best way forward before the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and to provide for elections in about a year now to a constituent assembly," Bremer told Radio Free Europe. Sistani's opposition poses a serious challenge to American plans to cede authority in Iraq this summer to a transitional government. So far, the largely Shiite south has been relatively friendly to American-led occupation forces. But some violence has flared in recent days, giving a taste of the danger should Shiites resist en masse. In his statement Sunday, Sistani alluded to the possibility of violence among fellow Shiites unless direct elections were held. He has yet to put his objections into the form of a fatwa, a religious edict that many Shiites would consider law.
| I still think that something will be worked out. Sistani's too important to ignore. |
|