The members of the U.S.-picked Iraqi governing council

By Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff

CAIRO, July 14 (IslamOnline.net) – The U.S.-handpicked Iraqi governing council would come across a number of stumbling blocs and differences that would bring a lot of changes in the near future, head of the Iraqi National Assembly (INA) Laith Kabah said Sunday, July 13, asserting that the council's make-up would not last more than three months.

"It will be a mammoth task for that council…it will never be that easy," Kabah, speaking by phone from Washington, told IslamOnline.net, asserting that the council would come across "political humps."

Kabah, however, said that the council's make-up "represents Iraq's social and political mosaic," branding it as "a good selections."

"But when the council assumes its responsibilities and duties, including supervising its executive body and setting up its statute, only then problems would come to the surface," he said.

The problems would centre on "the decision-taking process, the appointment of the members of the council's executive body and the representation of the country's various calns and communities in the constitutional and executive bodies," Kabah added.

Kabah said that the establishment of the governing council was the fourth stage of "the U.S. bids to find a resolution to the Iraqi dilemma."  

The first stage, he added, was launched during the London conference -- one month before the U.S. waged its war on Iraq on March 20 – which resulted in setting up a follow-up committee of 65 members of main Iraqi political powers.

"The second one was represented in the selections made by former U.S. civil administrator Gay Garner, while the third had to do with the proposal put forward by his successor Paul Bremer, who spoke openly about a U.S. governance with the help of Iraqi councilors," Kabah said, noting that the fourth stage "would not be the last one."

Misgivings

Although Kabah said there is no an all-inclusive solution that would appeal to all Iraqis, he voiced misgivings that the failure to provide security, basis services for the Iraqi people or mapping the country's political landscape would lead at the end of the day to a cycle of trading accusations and barbs between the Americans and the fledgling council.

"In consequence, everything would slip out of control," he added.

On the council's political currents, particularly the Shiites' one, Kabah hoped that the council would take the matter seriously and act in unison with all other non-represented currents in accordance with the council's statute and regulations.

But Kabah expressed skepticism about the selection mechanism of the council's members, stressing that "it should be vetted first so that it would not be used as a pretext by anyone to enflame the situation and bring the entire process to square one."

For his part, the spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Dr. Hamed al-Bayyati, told IOL that Bremer had brushed aside the proposals put forth by the Iraqi opposition groups to select the members of the council.

"However, the selection was made by all Iraqi political parties, adding that "so far so good, but the council's powers are still the pending question."

The council opened its inaugural session Sunday, July 13, by declaring April 9, the day U.S.-led forces rolled into Baghdad, a national holiday in its first act as a ruling body.