Garner set to form Iraq government

THE formation of a new Iraqi government will start next week, the country’s US administrator said yesterday, after American forces netted four more senior members of Saddam Hussein’s old guard.

Speaking after talks with some of the country’s prospective new leaders, retired US general Jay Garner told a Baghdad news conference:

“I think you’ll begin to see the governmental process start next week, by the end of next week. It will have Iraqi faces on it. It will be governed by the Iraqis.”

But Iraqis who attended the meeting expressed impatience about the failure of US forces to restore essential services and law and order in the battered capital.

A US official described the tone of the closed-door meeting as “spirited and sometimes emotional”.

Retired English teacher Youarash Haidoua said that Mr Garner had told them: “We are trying to do our best”. But Mr Haidoua added: “We need security, we need peace, we need law.”

As part of the process of replacing the ousted Saddam government, a number of Iraqi political groupings are to meet US officials in Baghdad on Monday, following an initial meeting near the southern city of Nassiriya last week.

Mr Garner’s talks with about 60 Baghdad academics and community leaders on Iraq’s future took place at a conference centre in the capital close to Saddam’s bombed-out main palace complex.

Among the latest Saddam aides arrested was Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al-Tikriti, commander of Iraq’s air defences. At number 10 on the US list of 55 most wanted fugitives, he is the highest ranking catch yet.

Another top figure in custody is military intelligence chief Zuhayr Talib Abd al Sattar al Naqib, who gave himself up in Baghdad. General Naqib figures on the list in 21st place.

In a sign that some normality is returning to the war-torn country, a US reconstruction official said oil production was expected to resume in northern Iraq in the next two days.

“We anticipate in the next day or two to pump about 60,000 barrels per day in the north into the Baiji refinery,” said General Carl Strock, a member of Mr Garner’s reconstruction team.

The US military said that it was questioning some of its soldiers over the alleged theft of part of a multi-million-dollar haul of cash found in Baghdad a week ago.

Mr Garner’s meeting venue in the capital was ringed by tanks and other armoured vehicles following anti-American demonstrations by Iraqis demanding that the US-led troops who ousted Saddam two weeks ago get out of the country.

Iraq’s majority Shi’ites, some of whose leaders went to Iran’s Islamic republic to escape Saddam’s repression, have been prominent in protests against a continued US presence, raising alarm in Washington over Tehran’s influence.

The Shi’ites showed their strength and organisational ability this week when they held a long banned pilgrimage in the holy city of Kerbala, attended by more than a million faithful.

Mr Garner’s deputy, British general Tim Cross, said Iraqis must be allowed to vent their fury after decades of repression, but he told reporters he did not want to see this lead to a fundamentalist religious government like that in Shi’ite Iran.

Iran yesterday rejected US suggestions that Tehran was interfering in Iraq and said it was not seeking to promote the political role of Shi’ites in its western neighbour.

Washington had warned Tehran to stay out of Iraqi politics amid concerns that it was seeking to encourage the creation of a fellow Islamic republic there.