CAIRO, 4 January 2005 — Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim Al-Shaalan said yesterday he favored delaying elections beyond Jan. 30 if Sunni Muslims are not planning to take part.

Shaalan, in Cairo for medical treatment, told reporters that Iraq was asking Egypt to intervene to try to persuade the Sunnis to vote. He was speaking after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

“If there is any difficulty in them (Sunnis) taking part, then the question of postponing them (the elections) for another period arises. That I believe is the safest and most proper way so that all sectors and the full spectrum of Iraqi society can take part in elections on one day,” he said.

Several Iraqi groups, mainly Sunnis, have argued in favor of postponing the elections. The once-privileged minority faces the prospect of the vote cementing the newfound political power of the long-oppressed Shiite majority.

But Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, like Shaalan a secular Shiite, has said he wants the elections to go ahead on time.

Shiites, led by Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, their most influential cleric, have also insisted the polls go ahead, as have the United States and Shiite neighbor Iran.

Shaalan again accused Iran and Syria of interfering in Iraq and was dismissive of the value of dialogue with Tehran.

“Bilateral dialogue is not enough for Iran. What it wants is control over Iraq. That is its basic aim,” he said.

Iraqi officials have repeatedly complained that Iran and Syria are not doing enough to seal their borders against guerrillas seeking to join the fight against the US forces and their allies in Iraq. Iran and Syria say they are doing their best but the Iraqi government has been lax on its side.

Shaalan said Iraq did not have the means to monitor all of its border with Iran. The minister was also sceptical about a meeting of Iraq’s neighbors in Jordan this Thursday.

“Unfortunately the other parties have started with their arrogance and their corruption and their exploitation of the reality of Iraq, unfortunately,” he said.

Deal Struck for Iraqi Expatriates in Syria to Vote

Iraqi expatriates living in Syria will be able to vote in their country’s landmark national elections this month, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said yesterday.

The agreement was signed Sunday by a Syrian Foreign Ministry official and the head of the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program (OCV) in Syria, Luis Martinez-Betanzos, the IOM said in a statement.

The accord allows the estimated 250,000 to 500,000 Iraqis living in Syria to register for the elections Jan. 17-23 and cast their votes in Damascus Jan. 28-30.

“The OCV Program gives Iraqis living in Syria a unique chance to participate in their homeland’s first democratic election in living memory,” Martinez-Betanzos said in the statement.

The Geneva-based IOM, which is organizing expatriate voting on behalf of the Iraqi electoral commission, estimates that up to one million Iraqis living in 14 countries may be eligible to cast their votes.

Voting day in Iraq itself is Jan. 30. Citizens will elect a transitional National Assembly, a parliament for the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and 18 provincial councils.

But expatriates will be allowed to vote only for the 275-seat National Assembly.