Word: sistani
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...most powerful man in Iraq doesn't go out much. As an estimated 100,000 of his followers poured into the streets of Baghdad last week to demand direct elections in Iraq, Grand Ayatullah Ali Sistani stayed out of sight, holed up in the same nondescript white-walled compound on an alley off the Street of the Messenger in Najaf where he was kept under house arrest during the rule of Saddam Hussein. A crowd of followers seeking his counsel gathered outside. Some were allowed to enter; others were told by the guards to submit their questions in writing...
Behind the scenes, the place was buzzing. Aides and emissaries shuttled through the heavy wooden doors leading into Sistani's office, trying to determine whether the reclusive cleric, 75--the religious figure most revered by Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority--will bend in his opposition to the U.S. plan to hand over power by June 30 to a transitional Iraqi government chosen by an as-yet-undefined caucus system. Sistani says he will urge his followers to reject any new government unless it is directly elected. To those who met with him last week, Sistani seemed good-humored...
...Bush Administration's drive to turn over sovereignty and reduce the U.S. troop presence in Iraq in time for the climax of the presidential campaign may hang in the balance. The U.S. plan, unveiled in November, calls for regional caucuses to appoint representatives to an interim legislature. Sistani aides say he suspects this method would allow the Americans and to a lesser degree the Governing Council--the U.S.-appointed group of transitional Iraqi leaders--to engineer the results to their liking. In an effort to mollify Sistani, the U.S. last week persuaded U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to dispatch...
...insisted it can't comply with demands from Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani, that the first post-Saddam government be established via nationwide direct elections. U.S. officials say that would be too difficult to pull off before the June 30 deadline for the transfer of power. Instead, the U.S. wants the new government to be chosen by local caucuses. Ahead of meetings in New York City this week with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian chief in Iraq, said, "We have doubts, as does the Secretary-General, that elections...
...aide to al-Sistani last week said he might issue a fatwa telling his followers not to recognize any government that has not been directly elected. Publicly, the U.S. is sticking to its guns, saying some compromise on the election issue is still possible. But privately, U.S. officials predict Washington will blink first. With time running out to get a handover started in Baghdad, a State Department source says, "they're going to realize the game's up and cave." --By Massimo Calabresi and Hassan Fatah