UK proposes Iraqi 'loya jirga' should select leaders for future
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Your support makes all the difference.Britain proposed yesterday that a special conference of Iraqi leaders should be held to set up an interim administration to run the country after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The plan, being discussed with senior figures in Washington and the United Nations, has similarities to the loya jirga held after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan to confirm Hamid Karzai as President.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, announcing the proposal, said representatives "from all sections of Iraqi society" should be summoned "to place the responsibility for decisions about Iraq's political and economic future firmly in the hands of the Iraqi people".
Mr Straw was criticised by Labour backbenchers who expressed concern at the imposition of a US-dominated administration in Iraq.
But he said he hoped the UN would have a "leading role" in bringing the conference about and added that Britain would seek a fresh Security Council resolution "to affirm Iraq's territorial integrity, and to endorse an appropriate post-conflict administration".
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "This is an idea, it's one idea and there are different formulae, but we have already discussed it with the US and the UN and these discussions continue."
Denis MacShane, the minister for Europe, also stressed the involvement of the UN in a future Iraqi administration. He said: "It is certainly a British view that the UN should have a role within that at some stage."
Mr Straw will launch a diplomatic charm offensive today to try to rebuild relations with Britain's European allies. He will try to win support for a post-war settlement in Iraq as well as aid to rebuild the shattered country.
The Foreign Secretary will begin a week of meetings with a dinner with Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, in Berlin. He will also fly to Paris to meet his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, one of the most outspoken critics of British involvement of the war.
The Foreign Office admitted it would take more than "telephone diplomacy" to overcome divisions between Britain and its European allies over Iraq.
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