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CNN Live At Daybreak
Prominent Iraqi Cleric Wants Elections Now
Aired February 20, 2004 - 06:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is officially weighing in on when the Iraqis should hold elections. Certainly not now, he says, but later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We shared with them our sense and the major consensus or understanding that elections cannot be held before the end of June, that the June 30 date for handover of sovereignty must be respected, and that we need to find a mechanism to create caretaker government, and then help prepare the elections later or sometime later in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That is not making the Shiite population very happy in Najaf, Iraq. Huge demonstrations are going on there now. They want elections held right now.
Live to Baghdad and Brent Sadler to bring us up-to-date.
Hello -- Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
Yes, indeed, the reaction of the Shia majority in Iraq is crucially important to this whole business of what Kofi Annan said there of creating a mechanism in which a working government, Iraqi government, can be put in place, a caretaker government by this handover deadline of June the 30th. And that is a fixed date as far as the United States is concerned. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer saying yesterday that that date would not be changed.
So, what happens in the meantime? How to address all of the very many problems that are being raised in the creation of this new body that will assume power in terms of the reins of power, and thus end the U.S. occupation on that date?
And the ramifications of this are still going on. One of the most talked about options is to expand the role of the existing 25- member U.S.-appointed Governing Council, perhaps appoint new members to that IGC and prolong its life beyond that June 30 deadline so that sovereignty could be handed over to them.
But that is not a plan that's received any backing officially from the United Nations, and it's going to take many more days, Carol, before a working government, ideas, options, fallback plans can be put into place. But you can certainly rest assured that this whole issue of finding an interim government working to an interim constitution in the 132 days left of that June 30 deadline is fraught with uncertainty.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler live from Baghdad this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 20, 2004 - 06:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is officially weighing in on when the Iraqis should hold elections. Certainly not now, he says, but later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We shared with them our sense and the major consensus or understanding that elections cannot be held before the end of June, that the June 30 date for handover of sovereignty must be respected, and that we need to find a mechanism to create caretaker government, and then help prepare the elections later or sometime later in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That is not making the Shiite population very happy in Najaf, Iraq. Huge demonstrations are going on there now. They want elections held right now.
Live to Baghdad and Brent Sadler to bring us up-to-date.
Hello -- Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
Yes, indeed, the reaction of the Shia majority in Iraq is crucially important to this whole business of what Kofi Annan said there of creating a mechanism in which a working government, Iraqi government, can be put in place, a caretaker government by this handover deadline of June the 30th. And that is a fixed date as far as the United States is concerned. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer saying yesterday that that date would not be changed.
So, what happens in the meantime? How to address all of the very many problems that are being raised in the creation of this new body that will assume power in terms of the reins of power, and thus end the U.S. occupation on that date?
And the ramifications of this are still going on. One of the most talked about options is to expand the role of the existing 25- member U.S.-appointed Governing Council, perhaps appoint new members to that IGC and prolong its life beyond that June 30 deadline so that sovereignty could be handed over to them.
But that is not a plan that's received any backing officially from the United Nations, and it's going to take many more days, Carol, before a working government, ideas, options, fallback plans can be put into place. But you can certainly rest assured that this whole issue of finding an interim government working to an interim constitution in the 132 days left of that June 30 deadline is fraught with uncertainty.
COSTELLO: Brent Sadler live from Baghdad this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
