Baghdad — The United Nations will do “everything possible” to help Iraq regain its sovereignty, the head of a UN team said after meeting with Iraqi leaders Sunday to discuss the feasibility of holding early legislative elections.
Meanwhile, insurgents attacked U.S. army convoys with a roadside bomb and a grenade in two cities Sunday, injuring at least three soldiers, witnesses said. A bomb planted inside a police station killed three policemen and injured 11 others on Saturday, officials said.
The United Nations team held talks for about two hours with members of the U.S.-installed Governing Council at the start of its mission to break the impasse between the United States and the country's influential Shiite Muslim clergy on the blueprint for transferring sovereignty to the Iraqis.
“The UN can only emphasize its wish to do everything possible to help the Iraqi people with all their sects and components to come out from their long plight and to help them regain independence and sovereignty,” said Lakhdar Brahimi, Secretary General Kofi Annan's special adviser on Iraq, who is leading the team.
The UN team, which arrived Saturday, includes an election expert, Carina Perelli of Uruguay.
Mr. Annan said in a statement Saturday that the UN experts would hold “intensive consultations” with Iraqi leaders and members of the U.S.-led coalition and listen to the views of all Iraqi constituencies.
“I hope the work of this team will help resolve the impasse over the transitional political process leading to the establishment of a provisional government for Iraq,” Mr. Annan said.
He did not say how long the team would remain in Iraq. However, a senior Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said members would stay about 10 days.
“We are here to see what kind of mechanism the Iraqis feel are more appropriate to their country,” said the UN team's spokesman, Ahmed Fawzi.
The United Nations withdrew its international staff from Iraq last year following two attacks against their headquarters, including the devastating Aug. 19 truck bombing that killed 22 people, including the top envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The team members were expected to travel to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to meet Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, whose demand for early elections threatens to torpedo U.S. plans for transferring power to Iraqis by July 1.
Mr. Al-Sistani demands elections for the new legislature, while the Americans want it appointed in 18 regional caucuses. The legislature will choose a new sovereign government that will take office by July 1.
Also Sunday, Ahmad Chalabi, a westernized Shiite politician with close Pentagon links, met with Mr. al-Sistani for about 90 minutes in Najaf and said the UN team could be persuaded that early elections are feasible.
“We will tell the UN delegation that an election is possible,” said Mr. Chalabi, who also is a member of the Governing Council. “We reject any delay in the transfer of powers to Iraqis,” he said, adding that Washington should stick to the July 1 deadline.
Although the Shiites are pressing for an early ballot, many leading Sunni Muslims fear an election under U.S. occupation would produce a government dominated by majority Shiites, who were suppressed for generations by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.
The Sunni Muslim president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, told reporters that the council and the UN team “discussed all forms of an election that are adequate to bring about a representative government, keeping in mind that there's no delay to the June 30 deadline.”
Mr. Abdel-Hamid, who heads the fundamentalist Iraqi Islamic party, told reporters Saturday the Governing Council would be “guided” by the UN team's findings, but the final decision “rests with the council in consultation with the coalition.”
Failure to resolve the impasse with Mr. al-Sistani would throw the Bush administration's Iraq policies into disarray during an election year and could stoke sectarian tensions in a country already ravaged by terrorism and an insurgency.
The United States and its Governing Council allies say elections cannot be held under such unstable security conditions. They also cite the lack of proper census or electoral rolls.
In the latest violence, a U.S. convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, wounding one soldier, witnesses said. A U.S. military official in Mosul, however, said the car was damaged in a road accident and would not comment on injuries.
Also Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded near an army convoy in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, injuring two soldiers, witnesses said. The U.S. command in Baghdad did not confirm the incident.
On Saturday, a bomb exploded inside a police station, killing three policemen and injuring 11 others, in Suwayrah town, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Odai Salman Abed said Sunday.
It was unclear who planted the bomb, which left a large hole in the floor of the station and caused extensive damage inside.
