Shahristani to be named Iraq premier say US sources

1.00pm


WASHINGTON - The United Nations is expected to pick Hussain Shahristani, a Shi'ite Muslim nuclear scientist who spent years in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein, as premier of a new interim Iraqi government, US sources said on Tuesday.

A State Department official said Shahristani was one of three finalists being considered for the key post but other sources said Shahristani was expected to head the new caretaker government when the United States hands over power on July 1.

Asked if UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had made his choices, one source with close ties to the Bush administration told Reuters: "Shahristani for prime minister."

The State Department official said: "He is one of about three finalists who was being considered for prime minister. I do not know whether he was chosen and actually asked."

"It's pretty obvious it has to be a Shi'ite. It also has to be someone who is not seen to be beholden any particular faction or party and yet not be so much of a technocrat that he has no standing with the parties," he said.

Shahristani fit that profile, he added.

Another US source said he expected Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni Muslim and one-time Iraqi foreign minister, to be president.

Vice presidential choices are expected to be Ibrahim Jaafari, a medical doctor who is spokesman of the Dawa Party, and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, although it is unclear if Talabani would take the job, the source said.

The slate of leaders to head the interim government that will administer Iraq until elections planned for January 2005 is being put together by Brahimi, special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, with the close assistance of Robert Blackwill, President Bush's special adviser on Iraq.

Shahristani was tortured and imprisoned by Saddam after refusing to work on Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

In a February 2003 interview on CNN, Shahristani said the Iraqi president was hiding weapons of mass destruction underneath the ground in tunnels.

Bush cited Saddam's weapons of mass destruction as a prime reason for the Iraq war but none have been found.

At the United Nations, Annan briefed Security Council ambassadors on Brahimi's work, but gave no names of who would be in the new government.

Diplomats said they questioned Annan on how credible the list would be among 20 million Iraqis. They also suggested the new interim government should come to New York before a U.S.-British drafted new Security Council resolution was adopted.

Asked if Brahimi's difficulties would delay an announcement by the end of May, Annan said, "We had indicated that our target date was the end of May, and obviously we are still working toward that date. I hope we will be able to meet that target."

The resolution presented to the Security Council members on Monday is an integral part of Bush's plan for stabilising Iraq and creating a democratic state there. Bush, facing plunging poll numbers at home in an election year, is striving to gain greater international support for that plan.

It would endorse the formation of a sovereign interim Iraqi government but allow US-led forces to take "all necessary measures" to keep the peace.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq