Sistani Opposes Appointed Transitional

Sistani opposes Appointed Transitional Government

The Jordan Times reported on the various plans being put forward for the July1 US hand-off to a sovereign Iraqi government. Since direct elections probably cannot be held before that date, the inclination seems to be to hand sovereignty to a perhaps expanded, but still appointed, Interim Governing Council.

This latter plan may run up against severe opposition from the Shiites. The Jordan Times notes,

“Adnan Al Asadi, a senior member of the Islamic Da’wa Party, and other politicians who have met Sistani, say he wants any transitional assembly to be chosen by Iraqis. Asadi said Sistani wanted the Iraqi people to participate in setting up any new body so no one would question its legitimacy as had happened with the US-appointed Governing Council.

The NYT reported on Tuesday that the Shiites and the Kurds on the IGC are pressing to hold direct elections in their regions, and to let the Sunni Arabs hold caucuses to elect their leaders, if security concerns did not allow the Sunnis to hold open elections.

I don’t think just handing power over to an expanded IGC will be acceptable to Sistani, and his wide authority and popularity in the Shiite regions make it difficult to simply ignore him.