Shiite protests complicate US plans in Iraq

The protesters marched to a mosque waving banners and photos of Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 chanted " No, No to America! Yes, yes to Sistani!" while being watched closely by British soldiers, reports the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Earlier this week, Sistani repeated calls for general elections (rather than selection by caucuses as agreed upon by the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council) to choose an interim Iraqi government.

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Mr. Sistani says the method proposed by the US and Iraqi Governing Council to choose the assembly will lack the public support needed to be effective. "If the transitional assembly is formed by a mechanism which doesn't have the necessary legitimacy, it would not be possible for the government to perform a useful function," he said. Sistani recently warned of increased violence if elections for the assembly were not held within months.

These recent statements by Sistani worry Washington, because of the influence he has among significant segments of Iraq's 60 to 70 percent Shiite majority. According to BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy, "The idea of standing up to the Americans - on such a universally upheld principle as electoral democracy - has wide appeal." This is why officials from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) went to the Shiite city of Najaf Sunday to try to persuade Sistani to support the US plan.

The IGC and the US argue that general elections for the transitional assembly are simply not practical any time soon. Among key reasons they list for this is the lack of a voter roll. As The New York Times reported last month, US officials rejected plans by Iraqi census officials to count the entire population and prepare a voter roll.

But with the new objections from the Shiites, the US-appointed IGC may need more international opinion to bolster their argument. Next week, Iraqi leaders and US authorities will seek legitimacy from a global organization some in the Bush administration have, in the recent past, branded as "irrelevant": the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the Kurds in northern Iraq are pushing for more land under a form of federalism recently OK'd by the council. Until the recent opposition from the Shiites, the main points of contention within the IGC have been focused on the amount of territory to be given to the Kurds. At the center of the political jockeying is the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which columnist William Safire points out in a recent New York Times piece:

The key is the city of Kirkuk, which Iraqi Kurds consider their capital. But Arab colonists and indigenous Turkmen dispute that hotly, as does Turkey, worried about a rich Kurdistan attracting Turkish Kurds. Kirkuk sits atop an ocean of oil holding 40 percent of Iraq's huge reserves.

Also...
• US: a bigger stick - and no longer speaking softly ( The Christian Science Monitor)
• Foreign Minister forced to resign over "independent diplomacy" controversy ( The Dong-a Ilbo, South Korea)
• War of Ideas, Part 3 ( The New York Times)
• Syria rules out peace with Sharon ( BBC)
• Language tools for fight on terror ( BBC)
• US reaffirms military support for Taiwan ( The Washington Post)

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