Iraqi Governing Council Has Doubts About U.N. Role

[leftchick]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4562976

<snip>
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. plans for transferring power to Iraqis by June 30 are under pressure after Iraq's Governing Council raised doubts about the role the United Nations should play, a senior coalition source said Sunday.

U.N. officials were expected to return to Iraq within weeks to help plan for elections to be held next year and shape the government that will resume sovereignty from July 1.

But several members of the Governing Council, a 25-person body appointed by the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, have expressed reservations about the role the U.N. should play in the process and about its special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Shi'ite members of the Council are said to object to the fact that they have to negotiate with Brahimi, a Sunni Muslim with a secular background who they feel cannot fully appreciate their desire for a greater religious role in politics.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. Since the UN's "role" in achieving American military objectives has

consisted of rubber-stamping everything from 12 years of sanctions that murdered nobody knows how many Iraqi children to the occupation itself, it is not surprising that even the collaborators would have some questions about the next UN "role."