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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Bush, Blair United on Iraq Government Plan |
| 2004-04-16 |
| This is already being spun on the Australian news as a major backdown by Bush and Blair President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair presented a united front on Friday behind a U.N. envoy’s proposal for a caretaker government in Iraq. They also backed a controversial plan put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon under which Israel will withdraw from Gaza but retain some settlements on the West Bank. The two leaders seized on a U.N. proposal for an interim Iraqi government as a welcome recommendation. Bush has been criticized this week for not having shed light on what plan he supports for Iraq once sovereignty is transferred on June 30 from a U.S.-led coalition. The proposal was put together by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to dissolve the Iraqi Governing Council and develop a caretaker government until elections can be held early next year. The United States and Britain went around the United Nations to go to war on Iraq, but now need the organization to lay the groundwork for a political transition. Bush said Brahimi had "identified a way forward to establishing an interim government that is broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people." Blair said a new U.N. resolution would be sought on the transition to Iraqi rule. "The U.N. will have a central role, as now, in developing the program and machinery for political transition to full Iraqi democracy. And we will seek a new U.N. Security Council resolution to embody the political and security way forward," Blair said. |
| Posted by:tipper |