Cleric Would Accept Interim Government in Iraq
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani Calls for Elections By the End of the Year
By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 26, 2004; 11:25 AM
washingtonpost.com
BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 -- Iraq's most influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, declared Thursday that he would allow a six-month delay in the nationwide elections that he had demanded this summer, giving the U.S. administration crucial leeway in its plan to formally end the U.S. occupation and transfer power to an Iraqi government by June 30.
But Sistani, who has emerged as a key power broker in Iraq, said he wanted the date of an election -- the end of 2004 -- enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution. He also insisted that an interim government scheduled to assume sovereignty from the U.S. occupation have sharply curtailed powers and focus its task on preparing for that election.
"The supreme religious authority demands clear guarantees, such as a resolution from the U.N. Security Council, to conduct elections by that time and to assure the Iraqi people that the matter will not be subjected again to more procrastination and maneuvering," Sistani said in a written statement issued in Arabic by his office in the sacred city of Najaf.
The declaration by Sistani, whose standing among Iraq's majority Shiite population makes him perhaps the most influential figure in Iraq, amounts to a partial victory for the Bush administration. It was the first public statement by the 73-year-old ayatollah since a U.N. report earlier this month ruled out the prospect of elections by this summer.
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Top Shi'ite Cleric Agrees to Delay in Iraq Poll
By Khaled Farhan, Reuters
Thursday, February 26, 2004; 7:38 AM
washingtonpost.com
Cleric Wants Iraq Elections by Year's End
By Sameer N. Yacoub, The Associated Press
Thursday, February 26, 2004; 10:39 AM
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