With only eight weeks left the transfer of power in Iraq, looks increasingly shaky, reports Omayma Abdel-Latif The timing could not have been worse. While Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy to Iraq, was briefing the UN Security Council on his proposals for sovereignty transfer in Iraq Tuesday night, US forces in Iraq were conducting business as usual, unleashing their firepower in a relentless assault on Falluja. The US military onslaught effectively ended the tentative cease-fire reached between US occupation forces and a delegation representing Falluja's local leaders last week. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly shortly after the attack Hashim Al-Hassany, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which has been involved in the negotiation process, expressed shock at America abandoning negotiations. "We have been warning them -- the Americans -- that they should not even contemplate a military solution to the standoff in Falluja," he said. "This could open the door to many Fallujas in Iraq." Al-Hassany spoke of "a terrible humanitarian crisis in Falluja". The US offensive, he pointed out, has exacerbated the suffering of the besieged city's 300,000 civilian population. "The bodies of the dead are still buried under the rubble, hospitals are in dire need of medical aid and US forces have been preventing any food aid from entering the city. On a humanitarian level, the situation is becoming intolerable," Al-Hassany said. The sudden shift in US tactics flew in the face of earlier reports suggesting the US was moving towards a political settlement to the standoff in Falluja. According to the cease-fire plan joint US-Iraqi patrols were to begin policing Falluja's streets on Tuesday. The assault came a day after fighting broke out in the holy city of Najaf, where US forces attacked what it claimed were members of the Al-Mahdi militia, killing at least 64 people. US reports suggesting the dead were followers of Muqtada Al-Sadr were contradicted by Al-Jazeera TV, which reported that most of the dead were civilians. Escalating violence has cast a shadow over the political process with Iraqi observers voicing concern over the fate UN efforts to establish a viable order before 30 June deadline. Any UN progress in that direction, they argue, will be derailed by Washington's resort to military confrontation with Iraqi resistance groups. In an attempt to allay those fears Brahimi stressed that Tuesday's events would not affect his plan. Brahimi is due in Baghdad next Sunday to resume talks with Iraqi political figures on selecting members of the forthcoming interim government. Brahimi has proposed that a new Iraqi caretaker government be appointed by the end of May. The government, he suggests, should comprise a small number of technocrats and judges. The 15-member caretaker government will be led by a prime minister, a ceremonial president and two vice presidents. Brahimi also suggested convening a national conference next July in Baghdad to select a consultative assembly to serve alongside the government until elections are held in January 2005. Controversy is likely to centre around the nature of the powers assumed by the new government. Earlier this week US officials made it clear the US would set limits to Iraqi self-rule and that the new government will have to cede some powers to the Coalition authorities. The new Iraqi government, they insisted, will not have any legislative authority. The Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) has been dismissive of such limitations, stressing that a neutered government would be unacceptable to Iraqis across the political divide. "Iraqis must reclaim full and unconditional sovereignty over the country. They should be handed all powers," said Issa Al-Baghdadi, spokesman for the Minister of National Security Muwfaq Al-Rubei on Wednesday. Al-Baghdadi downplayed reports of a dispute between Brahimi and IGC members, some of whom were infuriated at Brahimi's suggestion that they be excluded from selecting members of the caretaker government. "Brahimi's transfer plan was completed in close coordination with IGC members," he said. Al-Baghdadi added that while there was no objections to the structure of the plan proposed by Brahimi there were reservations about some of the names suggested. He would not, however, elaborate. On Monday the IGC began a series of meetings with Iraqi political and tribal figures to discuss the ways in which the selection of the caretaker government will be handled. Despite recent US shifts over the UN and a U-turn on its debaathification policy, scepticism remains over Washington's endgame. Iraqi observers criticise the "mixed messages coming from Washington" over the options it will pursue in Iraq. "There are questions over whether or not Washington wants to grant Iraqis sovereignty at all, and over whether or not the role of the UN in shaping the Iraqi polity will be cosmetic or real," Saad Abdel-Razik, an assistant to Adnan Bachachi, veteran diplomat and member of the IGC, told the Weekly. He pointed out that escalating violence, the deteriorating security situation, the use of brute force and the massacre of Iraqi civilians added to the complexity of the situation. "It is a question of mutual mistrust. We don't trust the Americans and they don't trust us. Many of the issues that are being addressed depend on confidence and this is lacking on both sides," Abdel- Razik said. (see pp. 8&9)
