The man who would be king of Iraq

Sherif Ali, who talks the talk of a thoughtful, 21st-century monarch, says Iraq needs a system that is, "open, liberal, modern, and just." A return to monarchy isn't reactionary, he says. "We need to create institutions that are independently powerful," he says, mentioning the media and lobbying groups. "Why democracies in the Western world are powerful is that civil institutions are more powerful than the government, which is weak."

From tribal sheikhs to working-class taxi drivers who lingered at Sherif Ali's homecoming party, many here describe him as modest and bright. Posters with his picture, which bears a likeness to his late cousin King Hussein of Jordan hail Sherif Ali as the "The Hope of Iraq."

"What we need is to liberate Iraqi from all this chaos," says Hassan Abdul Amir, a kickboxer who volunteered for Sherif Ali's security detail. "The monarchy will provide equality for all."

Sherif Ali, whose father served as an economics minister under the last king, says it "was in hindsight extremely successful."

But the vast majority of Iraq's subjects led disenfranchised lives, says Charles Tripp, a political scientist at the University of London. "One thing that makes people say nice things to him is a feeling of nostalgia for life before Saddam," says Mr. Tripp in a phone interview. "Most Iraqis weren't even born then, so their knowledge of what happened under the monarchy is quite small. In fact, it was quite ghastly in terms of social status, economic opportunity, and living conditions for most," he says.

The movement's chances of success, Tripp says, are low. "I don't see any group putting aside their differences and saying, 'that's what we need.'"

Western officials seem distant, thus far, toward the prince. Some of the formerly exiled parties have been cooperative. But restoring the monarchy is bound to have opponents, not just among antiroyalists but among Shiites - about 60 percent of Iraqis - and Kurds - another 20 percent.

The Hashemites are a Sunni monarchy created by Britain at the end of World War I from among the nobility of Mecca, and Iraq was carved out of the Ottoman Empire on the premise of the Sunni elites ruling the majority Shiites. Many Kurds oppose reinstating royalty because it seems incompatible with the decentralized state they want.

None of this worries Sherif Ali. As a direct descendant of Imam Ali, the revered Shiite martyr, he says, Shiites view him as a fitting ruler. And when there is true democracy in Iraq under a monarchy, Kurds will not need an sub-state to defend their rights.

A key reason the US has slowed formation of an interim Iraqi government has been the difficulty of expanding new decisionmakers beyond major exile groups. Implicit in this is a message that "outsiders" don't represent longsuffering "insiders."

Sherif Ali rejects the notion he may be too far removed. "I'm very in tune with what's going on in Iraq," he says. But, he adds, "I am against people coming from the outside and imposing themselves. All political leaders ... have to prove that we have the support of the Iraqi people."

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