Powell: Expanded Iraqi council may serve after handover
From Elise Labott
CNN Washington Bureau
 | |
|
Story Tools
|
| RELATED |
 Interactive: Coalition facing tough resistance
 Interactive: Recent centers of violence
|
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Among the leading options for transitioning power to the Iraqis is simply expanding the current Iraqi Governing Council to form an interim government, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.
"The model that is getting the most attention right now and seems the most practical one in terms of the time available to us would be some form of expanded governing council," Powell told a Senate subcommittee.
But "that is just sort of the lead horse at the moment. No decisions have been made," he said.
The U.S.-led coalition has set June 30 as the day to hand over power to an interim Iraqi authority.
Powell cautioned that potential agreements between the United States and the Iraqis, as well as a possible U.N. Security Council resolution, could place some constraints on the power of the interim government.
The interim government would rule until elections could be held sometime next year for a permanent government, but the process by which the permanent government would be chosen has not been announced.
The coalition's original plan to choose a government through caucuses was scrapped over objections from Iraqis, in particular Shiite cleric Ayatollah al-Sistani.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is in Iraq working with the Iraqi people to hear their ideas on the political transition.
Powell said he expected the new Iraqi government to sign agreements with the United States to keep its troops in the country, and that Iraqi forces could come under U.S. command.
He added that he was not concerned that the new Iraqi authority would kick U.S. troops out of the country after the handover date.
The Iraqis, Powell said, "are going to need us for security for some time to come" because they will be battling the same insurgents now attacking coalition forces.
"For that reason, I am quite confident we won't have a dispute with the interim government over us keeping the presence of our troops," Powell testified before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
