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American Morning
Planning New Iraqi Government
Aired June 02, 2003 - 07:07 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's move on to world news now and the latest in Iraq. A senior official says the U.S.-led coalition will now appoint a 25 to 30-member council of Iraqi leaders to form a government. Now, this is a big shift from an earlier plan that called for Iraqis themselves to choose their leaders.
Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf is following the developments.
But first, Jane, there has been yet another incident involving U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Can you first tell us about the incident and then tell us about this council?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Daryn, U.S. officials and other military officials are still investigating that incident Sunday, in which a grenade was thrown at a U.S. convoy, essentially injuring two soldiers and at least one Iraqi. Now, the interesting thing about that was that it was thrown in the vicinity of a mosque, which is raising all sorts of questions.
And on the political front, yes, it is a big shift. U.S. officials there say it's a tradeoff essentially, a tradeoff between getting quickly the administration and the ministries up and running and getting people back to work and things functioning again, and doing that long process that would allow Iraqis a quicker, more representative role in their own government; i.e., essentially being allowed to choose their own interim government. That's not going to happen quite yet. But the point is to be able to get this country, and particularly this city, up and running again.
Now, obviously still a lot of unanswered questions out there that the coalition and the military is working on; among them, searching for those weapons of mass destruction. Haven't found much evidence of them yet, but they're still looking -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And what about this council? Iraqis instead were anticipating next month that they would be choosing hundreds of representatives to this council to help lead the government; instead, much, much fewer -- 25 to 30 which will be picked by the British and the Americans. It certainly has to be disappointing to many Iraqis, who were hoping to have a hand in the immediate future of their country.
ARRAF: It certainly fuels suspicions. Now, the original plan was to choose perhaps 300 officials, people who could be political leaders. And those in a sense would have been chosen essentially by the U.S. coalition. But then, those people, that conference would have chosen an interim government. As it stands now, the U.S. is going to have a much greater role in choosing that government and in every step along the way.
Now, people in the streets, we've been talking to them this morning, and they say this is what they believe the U.S. wanted all along. And it's very hard to convince people, Daryn, that the United States is not here for Iraqi oil. Probably until they see the benefits of this -- I mean, now they've seen the benefits with Saddam Hussein gone, but they still don't have jobs, some people don't have electricity, there is no water in parts of the city, in parts of the country. It's going to take a lot to convince people of good intentions by the U.S. -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jane Arraf in Baghdad -- Jane, thank you.
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 June 2, 2003 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's move on to world news now and the latest in Iraq. A senior official says the U.S.-led coalition will now appoint a 25 to 30-member council of Iraqi leaders to form a government. Now, this is a big shift from an earlier plan that called for Iraqis themselves to choose their leaders.
Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf is following the developments.
But first, Jane, there has been yet another incident involving U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Can you first tell us about the incident and then tell us about this council?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Daryn, U.S. officials and other military officials are still investigating that incident Sunday, in which a grenade was thrown at a U.S. convoy, essentially injuring two soldiers and at least one Iraqi. Now, the interesting thing about that was that it was thrown in the vicinity of a mosque, which is raising all sorts of questions.
And on the political front, yes, it is a big shift. U.S. officials there say it's a tradeoff essentially, a tradeoff between getting quickly the administration and the ministries up and running and getting people back to work and things functioning again, and doing that long process that would allow Iraqis a quicker, more representative role in their own government; i.e., essentially being allowed to choose their own interim government. That's not going to happen quite yet. But the point is to be able to get this country, and particularly this city, up and running again.
Now, obviously still a lot of unanswered questions out there that the coalition and the military is working on; among them, searching for those weapons of mass destruction. Haven't found much evidence of them yet, but they're still looking -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And what about this council? Iraqis instead were anticipating next month that they would be choosing hundreds of representatives to this council to help lead the government; instead, much, much fewer -- 25 to 30 which will be picked by the British and the Americans. It certainly has to be disappointing to many Iraqis, who were hoping to have a hand in the immediate future of their country.
ARRAF: It certainly fuels suspicions. Now, the original plan was to choose perhaps 300 officials, people who could be political leaders. And those in a sense would have been chosen essentially by the U.S. coalition. But then, those people, that conference would have chosen an interim government. As it stands now, the U.S. is going to have a much greater role in choosing that government and in every step along the way.
Now, people in the streets, we've been talking to them this morning, and they say this is what they believe the U.S. wanted all along. And it's very hard to convince people, Daryn, that the United States is not here for Iraqi oil. Probably until they see the benefits of this -- I mean, now they've seen the benefits with Saddam Hussein gone, but they still don't have jobs, some people don't have electricity, there is no water in parts of the city, in parts of the country. It's going to take a lot to convince people of good intentions by the U.S. -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jane Arraf in Baghdad -- Jane, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
