US recalls Bremer to salvage self-rule plan

Iraq’s US administrator, Paul Bremer has been recalled from Baghdad for brainstorming consultations at the White House and the United Nations, in a scramble to salvage a timetable for Iraqi self-rule.

While the Bush administration said it intended to hold to its July 1 deadline for handing over control in Baghdad, large anti-American protests broke out in Basra. A leading Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, continued to press for direct, popular elections – rather than the US plan – as the way to create Iraq’s new government.

Threatening the US blueprint, an aide to the cleric said in Kuwait that if al-Sistani’s advice was rejected, a Muslim edict would be issued to deny legitimacy to any council elected under the American plan. Even some Sunnis respected al-Sistani, the aide said.

In the light of al-Sistani’s demands, US officials said, the Bush administration was reviewing its plan for transition to Iraqi rule, a plan that would include American troops remaining in the country after July 1. Al-Sistani has a reputation for being a moderate, but his stiff stance has cast doubt on whether the administration’s plan can be retained intact.

Administration officials were exploring compromises that would provide more direct voter participation by Iraqis on the issues of transition to self-rule and the role of US troops, officials said.

“Obviously we are concerned about working with Iraqis,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. “We are concerned about public opinion. We want to satisfy the needs and demands of the Iraqi people.”

Adnan Pachachi, the current Iraqi Governing Council president, said he believed al-Sistani could be convinced that elections could not be held right away. Still, Pachachi said: “We agreed that there is room for improvement, there are many, many ideas to make it more transparent and inclusive … whereby the Iraqi people, in a very obvious way, can manifest their desires.”

Bremer is due to meet Condoleezza Rice, George Bush’s national security adviser, at the White House today, and probably with Bush. Bremer is seeing Secretary of State Colin Powell and probably Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as well.

On Monday, Bremer will meet United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi leaders in New York to try to pave the way for the return of UN officials to Iraq and for a UN role in Iraqi elections.

In Basra, meanwhile, a crowd estimated by British soldiers at up to 30,000 people turned out in the streets of Iraq’s second-largest city. Protesters chanted: “No, no to America, yes, yes to al-Sistani.”

The United States wants regional caucuses – whose members would be at least partially-appointed – to choose a new Iraqi parliament, which would then select an Iraqi administration. The Bush administration says security is too poor and voter records too incomplete for direct elections right now.

The clerics want direct elections, fearing the caucuses may be rigged to keep Shi’ites out of power.

Al-Sistani and other clerics wield great influence among Iraq’s Shi’ites, believed to make up about 60% of the country’s 25 million people.