Word: sistani
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...Sistani's intransigence and insistence on the U.N.'s involvement forced Bremer to rip up his plans. In mid-January, Bremer flew to New York and met in the basement of the United Nations building with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Greenstock and several members of the Governing Council. Annan became convinced the Americans would defer to the U.N. on the transition to Iraqi sovereignty. Annan assigned his envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, to go to Iraq to help piece together the interim government and figure out whether direct elections were really feasible in 2004. Brahimi and U.N. election expert Carla Perelli...
...religious leadership which opposes minority vetoes and the dismembering of Iraq. The interim constitution brokered by the U.S. allows them to maintain their de facto autonomy and grants them a veto over any future Iraqi constitution not to their liking, but Shi'ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has warned that the interim constitution will be abandoned as soon as Iraq has elected a representative assembly. Already angered by their limited representation in the new government, Kurdish leaders sounded the alarm when Sistani persuaded the UN to avoid endorsing the interim constitution in its recent resolution backing the transfer...
...AFP/GETTY IMAGES Ayatollah Ali Sistani...
...thirds of Iraq's population, and their community has produced a wide spectrum of political parties, from some of the secular figures in the interim government to the radical Islamist followers of Moqtada Sadr. The single most influential figure among them is the supreme spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. His closest supporters in the political realm are the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Dawa Party, both of which are represented in the Interim Government...
...Script: Although Sistani has avoided appearing in public or pronouncing directly on constitutional matters, he is believed to favor democratic government rather than Iran-style clerical rule in matters of national politics. But democratic majority rule - and therefore, a dominant role for the preferences of the Shi'ite majority - remains non-negotiable for Sistani, who while counseling patience and avoiding confrontation with the Coalition has nonetheless insisted that only an elected Iraqi body can decide the country's future. He won a showdown with the U.S. over the question of elections, which are now scheduled for January...