IRAQ: U.N. SENIOR ADVISOR TO IRAQ LAKHDAR BRAHIMI SAYS IRAQI'S NEED AN HONEST AND COMPETENT GOVERNMENT TO RUN IRAQ DURING THE 7-MONTH INTERIM PERIOD

Record ID: 646713

  • Title: IRAQ: U.N. SENIOR ADVISOR TO IRAQ LAKHDAR BRAHIMI SAYS IRAQI'S NEED AN HONEST AND COMPETENT GOVERNMENT TO RUN IRAQ DURING THE 7-MONTH INTERIM PERIOD
  • Date: 14th April 2004
  • Summary: (EU) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 14, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE WITH JOURNALISTS AND U.N. SENIOR ADVISER LAKHDAR BRAHIMI, SPOKESMAN AND PRESIDENT OF IRAQ'S GOVERNING COUNCIL NEAR PODIUM 0.05 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRAHIMI, SAYING: "I am absolutely confident that most Iraqi people a simple formula for this interim period of just six or seven months. They want a government of competent, honest and independent people as far as possible. They want them led by a prime minister that can really preside over the work of the government and they are a lot of people that can answer to these qualifications." 0.43 3. JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE 0.48 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRAHIMI, SAYING: "I think sovereignty means for me the end of legal occupation. There will be a government that will be sovereign, that will exercise this sovereignty. Of course realities will have to be addressed. Sovereignty will be handed over but the 150,000 soldiers that are here are not going to to disappear on the 1st of July." 1.15 5. JOURNALISTS 1.20 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BRAHIMI, SAYING: "I think that from what we had heard here in Iraq from all the people and from many Americans, themselves that there can not be a military solution for the current problems and that the use of force, and especially the excessive use of force make things worse." 1.45 8. WS: JOURNALISTS 1.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA6N12AT2EB3FAUENZ6VGDUA39F
  • Story Text: U.N. senior advisor on Iraq holds news conference in
    Baghdad.


    U.N. senior advisor Lakhdar Brahimi said on
    Wednesday (April 14) that Iraqi's need a competent and
    honest government to run Iraq during the seven-month
    interim period.

    "I am absolutely confident that the most Iraqi people a
    simple formula for these interim period of just six or
    seven months. They want a government of competent, honest
    and independent people as far as possible. They want them
    led by a prime minister that can really preside over the
    work of the government and they are a lot of people that
    can answer to these qualifications," Brahimi told a news
    conference in Baghdad.

    Brahimi said that could convene a national assembly in
    July, soon after it regains its sovereignty from a U.S.-led
    occupation on June 30, to pick a council to advise the new
    interim government, a senior U.N. envoy.

    He said the conference could choose a consultative
    assembly to serve alongside a caretaker government that
    will organise elections due to take place by January 2005.

    However, he said that Iraq can not regain sovereignty
    only after the pullout of U.S.-led coalition forces from
    Iraq.

    "I think sovereignty means for me the end of legal
    occupation. There will be a government that will be
    sovereign, that will exercise this sovereignty, of course
    realities will have to be addressed. Sovereignty would be
    handed over but 150,00 soldiers that are here are not going
    to to disappear on the 1st of July," Brahimi said in
    reference to hand power over to Iraqis on July 1.

    Commenting on U.S. forces' resort for the use of force
    to quell down opposition in Iraq, Brahimi said use of force
    would further worsen the situation.

    Brahimi, senior adviser on Iraq to U.N. Secretary-General
    Kofi Annan, told repoter many Iraqis he consulted had
    suggested such a conference and he agreed with the idea.

    "The all-important aim is promoting national dialogue,
    consensus-building and national reconciliation in Iraq,"
    Brahimi said.

    Brahimi has been in Iraq for nearly two weeks meeting
    with Iraqi and U.S. officials in an attempt to come up with
    a way to select a government to take power by the June 30
    deadline set by the United States. His visit has coincided
    with the worst violence in Iraq since the fall of Saddam
    Hussein.


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