Sistani did not see any reason why elections should be delayed until 2005

BAGHDAD, November 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Jalal Talabani, the rotating chairman of the U.S.-appointed Interim Governing council (IGC) met Thursday, November 27, with the country’s most influential Shiite scholar to water down his objections to the American power transfer plans.

Talabani said Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani wanted full elections for all Iraqi administrative and political bodies to be formed in the future, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"He wants the Iraqi people to be consulted. He wants elections to be held for the municipal councils as well as the legislative council," the IGC leader added after the meeting.

Sistani maintained that despite the lack of a reliable census in Iraq, elections can still be held on the basis of the food ration cards distributed to the population under the regime of Saddam Hussein and that are still in use, said Talabani, a Kurdish leader.

Ayatollah Sistani had expressed concerns over real gaps in the American plans agreed on by the occupation authorities and the IGC on November 15.

He stressed that they diminished the role of the Iraqi people in the process of power transfer.

"Ayatollah Sistani insists that the Iraqi people give their opinion on central and crucial matters pertaining to the country and this is not the case as the (process of selecting the) transitional assembly now stands," leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) Abdel-Aziz Hakim said Wednesday, November 26.

Sistani did not see any reason why elections should be delayed until 2005, the time frame set by the transition accord, Hakim, himself a member of the IGC, told a press conference in the Shiite holy city of An-Najaf.

The prominent scholar didn't also find anything that assures the Islamic identity of the country in the proposed plans.

"There should have been a stipulation which prevents legislating anything that contradicts Islam in the new Iraq," Hakim said.

He added that Sistani and other Shiite leaders wanted assurances that the interim "Fundamental Law" would contain nothing contrary to Islam as well as a more representative system of selection for the assembly.

Both Ayatollah Sistani and Ayatollah Mohammed Said Hakim, another top Shiite leader, "shared the same reservations".

"There will be real problems if the reservations we have expressed are not taken into account," Hakim warned.

Sistani, widely revered as Iraq's most influential Shiite leader, has stopped short of issuing any fatwas calling on Shiites, making up some 60 per cent of the population, to fight occupation forces.

He had exhorted the Iraqi people to resort to "civil Jihad" instead of launching armed attacks against Anglo-American occupation soldiers.

Reservations 

Other Shiite religious parties have expressed reservations about the new U.S. plans to hand over sovereignty to an unelected provisional government by June next year.

But the warning issued Wednesday by Sistani and Hakim marked a sharp escalation in the opposition from Iraq's generally quiescent majority community.

U.S. and British occupation troops have thus far had a relatively easy ride from Iraq's Shiite community who were severely repressed under Saddam regime.

Observers said the Shiite reservations add to pressures on the U.S. occupation forces, facing a cauldron of seething, bubbling cauldron of resentment and anger among ordinary Iraqis.

They cited the threatening tone of Hakim, warning that the power transfer "will be deficient and will not meet the expectations of the people of Iraq" if the Shiite concerns were not addressed.

There are fears among the Shiite religious parties that the indirect system of selection chosen by the U.S. will not reflect the extent of their popular support.

Some Shiites figures also argue that it is high time for Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq to join hands in resisting the U.S.-led occupation of their country and drive out the invaders.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday, November 16, the power transfer plan will have no effect on U.S. military presence in the country.

The plan foresees a transitional assembly selected through a complicated system of caucuses convened under U.S. supervision, and operating under an interim constitution drawn up with American assistance.