BAGHDAD, 23 May 2003 — Iraqi political leader Adnan Pachachi said yesterday the Iraqi state “should not wither away” while the United States and Britain runs the country under powers granted by a UN Security Council resolution.
Pachachi, a reported candidate to head any interim authority, speaking before the council voted 14-0 in favor of the resolution, said the best thing for Iraqi political parties was to prepare for elections for a permanent government that would be internationally recognized. The resolution lifts the 13-year-old sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and gives the United States and Britain power to run the country and manage its oil revenues.
“I was hoping we would have an Iraqi administration running the country rather than letting the coalition administer Iraq,” Pachachi told Reuters in an interview house in Baghdad. “For more than a year there will be no Iraqi sovereignty. The Iraqi state should not suddenly wither away, this is not the way to go about things,” said Pachachi, surrounded by several Western-educated articulate aides.
“But anyway, we have to deal with facts and anyway, an Iraqi administration would find it difficult to run the country without a police force to establish law and order and to provide the necessary services,” he said.
He said a broadbased national conference attended by most Iraqi social and political groups would meet around mid-July to elect the Iraqi transitional administration whose duties would be to enact laws and legislation and prepare for elections.
Pachachi and many political leaders returned from exile shortly after Saddam Hussein was toppled on April 9.
But their hopes of quickly coming to power were dashed when Washington and London decided to wave the idea of an Iraqi provisional government and run the country themselves.
“...after we came back here we realized that a transitional government doesn’t have the means to deal with law and order and we realized the coalition would have to continue in providing these services,” he said.
Pachachi said since his return, he had been touring Iraq and meeting people from all walks of life to learn about their grievances and to introduce his ideas.
