New fast track for Iraqi sovereignty

No longer a distant promise, the arrival of independence for Iraq - from both the hated former regime and the chafing occupying authority - has been moved up and is now set for next summer.

Under a decision that represents a full reversal of American policy up to now for postwar Iraq, the US has agreed to creation of a provisional government that will assume full sovereignty by July 1, 2004.

The new plan - arrived at quickly this weekend after a week of mounting US and coalition casualties - meets the rising Iraqi demand for a faster transfer of power. It also addresses the Bush administration's newfound sense of pressure to devise an exit strategy in time for the presidential campaign season.

Within hours of announcing the plan, US troops suffered their deadliest single day of the Iraq conflict on Saturday when two helicopters collided over the northern city of Mosul. The cause of the crash - which killed 17 Americans - is still under investigation. But residents in the area reported seeing a missile hit one of the helicopters, causing it to fall and crash into the other. The incident pushes to more than 400 the number of combat deaths in Iraq.

Although some American military forces would remain in Iraq "at the invitation" of the new government, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) under administrator Paul Bremer would end July 1, 2004, say Iraqi officials.

A provisional national assembly would name a delegation of 15 members to write a constitution, and full national elections would be held by the end of 2005.

"We don't want the withdrawal of Coalition forces to be abrupt," says Ebrahim al-Jafiri, a Governing Council member who represents the Shiite Dawa Party. "It would leave a vacuum."

But questions remain about how the plan for a provisional government - which only days ago was still rejected by American officials as a path to instability and political chaos - will address some of Iraq's most pressing problems. Among key challenges will be security, economic recovery, and legitimacy for the new government.

The council members say they will take on more of the security issue, by overseeing the continuing transfer of policing functions from Coalition to Iraqi forces, and will be responsible for implementing the steps laid out to reach a provisional government in seven months.

Calling security an issue that "cannot wait," council member Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd, says that if allowed, Iraqis will do a better job of policing themselves because they know their country and their people.

"Most Iraqis see the Americans as a guarantor," he says, "but not for searching this or that house or attacking this or that place. That must be left to Iraqis."

Some Iraqis see the creation of a national assembly as a way of quelling unrest. "A large segment of the population not represented [by the Governing Council] now has an opportunity to be fully represented. This should undermine arguments of those violently opposed to the [current] government," says Ali Allawi, Iraqi minister of trade.

Mr. Jafiri, who is affiliated with the Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite leader, agrees that creating a legitimate Iraqi government will satisfy most Iraqis. But he warns that progress toward a new, more representative government could also infuriate those forces set on destabilizing Iraq - and thus lead to more attacks in the short term.

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