US sets July-1 date to step back

Iraq's Governing Council and the US occupation authority agreed on Saturday on the terms of a radical new plan for the country’s politi...

Iraq’s Governing Council and the US occupation authority agreed on Saturday on the terms of a radical new plan for the country’s political transition that would end the US-led occupation by July 1 and could facilitate a significant withdrawal of US troops next year.

The mid-year handover would enable President Bush to head into the 2004 election with a much smaller — and less vulnerable — contingent of US forces in Iraq.

‘‘This is a feast for the Iraqi people,’’ said Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who holds the council’s rotating presidency. The agreement was reached Saturday afternoon after a lengthy meeting at Talabani’s riverfront villa between council members and the US administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer.

Story continues below this ad

In a major revision of the Bush administration’s earlier political blueprints, the new plan authorizes the creation of a provisional national assembly that would assume sovereignty and serve as Iraq’s interim government until a constitution is written and elections are held.

The agreement calls for members of the national assembly to be chosen in caucuses in each of Iraq’s 18 provinces.

The administration had earlier demanded that a constitution be drafted and elections convened before a transfer of power, a process that could have stretched into 2005.

The creation of the assembly will result in the dissolution of the US-appointed Governing Council.

Story continues below this ad

Much of the work of organizing the provisional administration will fall to the council, whose leaders pledged to establish a government that would respect human rights, ensure religious freedom and provide separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.

But just as it speeds up the political transition, the process will introduce a new level of uncertainty for the US government. By ceding sovereignty to a provisional administration, the US will lose veto power over the content of Iraq’s constitution and the government. It would also would result in Iraqi security forces taking over more responsibilities from US troops.

Pentagon officials have said they want to base tens of thousands of soldiers in Iraq for the next few years as Bush welcomed the new plan. The new approach, crafted by Bremer with input from the Pentagon and the National Security Council, was approved by Bush during Bremer’s two-day visit to Washington last week.

Meanwhile, Bush said in an interview broadcast in BBC on Sunday that foreigners were fighting in Iraq because they wanted to install a Taliban-style government.