Iraqi leadership expected in weeks as first ballot held

THE United States yesterday said Iraq should have an interim national leadership in place

“By the middle of the month, you’ll really see a beginning of a nucleus of an Iraqi government with an Iraqi face on it that is dealing with the coalition,” said Jay Garner, retired US general in charge of postwar reconstruction in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, Mr Garner said he expected up to nine Iraqis to form an interim leadership group that would be a point of contact for the Americans.

The group would be chosen by Iraqis and would consist of some returned exiles and some local Iraqis, representing Iraq’s ethnic and religious spectrum.

He said the emerging leadership might include Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress; Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord; and Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, whose elder brother heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.