IRAQ: IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADER ADNAN PACHACHI SAYS THAT ONLY THE IRAQI PEOPLE SHOULD DECIDE WHO WILL REPRESENT THEM IN NEW GOVERNMENT

Record ID: 646647

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADER ADNAN PACHACHI SAYS THAT ONLY THE IRAQI PEOPLE SHOULD DECIDE WHO WILL REPRESENT THEM IN NEW GOVERNMENT
  • Date: 7th May 2003
  • Summary: (EU) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MAY 7, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV IRAQI OPPOSITION LEADER ADNAN PACHACHI WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE TO APPLAUSE 0.06 2. SMV PACHACI SITTING DOWN 0.09 3. WIDE OF AUDIENCE 0.12 4. SCU UNDBITE) (Arabic) PACHACHI SPEAKING "I was not nominated and nobody nominates me and I will not nominate myself for any post." 0.`9 5. MV MAN AND WOMAN LISTENING TO PACHACHI 0.22 6. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PACHACHI SPEAKING "What we are concerned is the next stage which will be establishing an Iraqi government and it's the time for Iraqi people to take the initiative to run their own country." 0.47 7. SMV JOURNALISTS 0.51 8. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PACHACHI SAYING "But the important thing now is not the leadership council of the opposition but rather the transitional government and that transitional government has to be elected and not nominated by somebody else. It has to be elected by a broadly based Iraqi conferencein which all political forces and persuasions in Iraq should be represented and as far as my taking part, I will only, but only accept a role if I am elected to it." 1.33 9. VARIOUS, NEWS CONFERENCE BREAKING UP (2 SHOTS) 1.43 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NATURAL WITH ENGLISH AND ARABIC SPEECH
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA7AA8D0XXMJ7ZGHG9X77SOY1P6
  • Story Text: A prominent Iraqi opposition leader Adnan Pachachi has
    told reporters in Baghdad the Iraqi people alone should decide
    who will represent them in the future government and that the
    opposition would not accept any American or international
    interference in forming the new Iraqi government.

    Pajaji, a former Iraqi foreign minister, was speaking upon
    his return from Dubai where he spent over two decades in exile.



    An Iraqi opposition leader on Wednesday (May 7, 2003)
    said he would not take public office unless he was nominated and
    elected to it by the Iraqi people.

    "I was not nominated and nobody nominates me and I will
    not nominate myself for any post," Adnan Pachachi told a news
    conference in Baghdad.

    "I will only, but only accept a role if I am elected to
    it," said the soft-speaking politician who served as Iraq's
    foreign minister in the mid-1960s.

    Pachachi, 79, who was tipped for a key role in post-Saddam
    Hussein Iraq said he would work together with all the Iraqi
    political forces to form an interim government as soon as
    possible.

    Pachachi said the Iraqi people alone should decide who
    will represent them in the future government and that the
    opposition would not accept any American or international
    interference in forming the new Iraqi government.

    "The important thing now is not the leadership council of
    the opposition but rather the transitional government and that
    transitional government has to be elected and not nominated by
    somebody else. It has to be elected by a broadly based Iraqi
    conference in which all political forces and persuasions in
    Iraq should be represented and as far as my taking part, I
    will only, but only accept a role if I am elected to it."
    Pachachi said, adding he hoped a conference will be held by
    the end of the month.

    Pachachi was speaking upon his return from Dubai where he
    spent over two decades in exile.

    The United States (U.S.) civil administrator of Iraq, Jay
    Garner, said on Monday (May 5) a collective interim leadership
    should be set up in Iraq by the middle of May. Garner said he
    expected up to nine Iraqis to form an interim leadership group
    that would be a point of contact for the Americans.

    The group would consist of some returned exiles and some
    spectrum.

    Pachachi said that he had not taken part in the opposition
    meetings held in Iraq, but said he maintained contacts with
    all Iraqi political forces.

    He added that the conference would elect a transitional
    government, which in turn would enact an electoral law that
    would ensure freedom of expression and forming political
    parties.

    Describing his mission in Iraq as "hard", but what he had
    always hoped for, Pachachi arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday (May 6)
    after a tour in neighbouring Arab countries.

    He said his prime focus would be on restoring the
    authority of law and order, fixing public services including
    water and electricity and paying salaries.

    Pachachi said he would visit all parts of Iraq to meet
    people and listen to their complaints. He said his work did
    not conflict with that of Garner, the retired U.S. general, in
    charge of post-war reconstruction in Iraq. But he said he
    believed that the Iraqi people could do the task better than
    Garner.

    Concerning the appointment of L. Paul Bremer as top civil
    administrator for Iraq, Pachachi took a "wait and see"
    attitude.

    Bremer, a former U.S. diplomat who headed the State
    Department's counter-terrorism efforts, is briefed to
    concentrate on the political process in the country while
    Garner would focus on reconstruction.




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