Guardian Utd: American plan for Iraq needs complete overhaul

[Jack Rabbit]

NOTE: shortened title
From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Saturday February 14

American plan for Iraq needs complete overhaul, United Nations envoy warns
Too little time left for credible elections, compounded by 'very serious danger' of civil war
By Rory McCarthy in Baghdad

The UN threw America's latest political plan for Iraq into disarray yesterday by making it clear that direct elections cannot be held before the June 30 transfer of power to an Iraqi authority.
This was a key demand of the Shias, whose leaders set their face against the US plan to give control of the country to panels of "the great and the good".
Last night the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, said power should still be handed over to the Iraqis this summer as planned. But his aides said there would not be time to hold "credible elections" before then.
He distanced himself from the controversial US plan, hinting that it would have to be drastically rewritten or shelved.

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