U.S., Iraq Work Toward a Constitution

Responding to international pressure to come up with a timetable for a political transition in Iraq, the United States and the interim Iraqi Governing Council are developing a plan for drafting a constitution and holding elections within about a year. But the top U.S. official in Iraq said Friday that the council has yet to even schedule a constitutional convention and does not have a timetable to complete its work.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell repeated Friday that the United States would like Iraqi leaders to produce a new constitution in six months, paving the way for elections perhaps six months later and a return to self-rule. But the U.S. is not setting a deadline, Powell emphasized. Rather, he said, he was sketching out an “appropriate” time frame to motivate the drafting process.

“The term ‘deadline’ suggests that something awful happens at the end of the six months, and I wouldn’t want to convey the impression that [it] falls off the end of the Earth at the end of six months,” he said. “Six months seems to be a good timeline to put out there for the creation of this constitution, and also to give a sense of momentum and purpose to the effort of moving toward full restoration of authority over Iraq to the Iraqi people.”

The Governing Council’s preliminary constitutional committee will make its recommendations Sept. 30, and drafting work will begin after the council agrees on what kind of government it is aiming for and how elections should be organized. After the constitution is completed, the Iraqis would ratify it and prepare for elections, Powell said.

“Some people say it would be another six months for elections, but we really can’t be precise about it,” he said.

Powell announced the six-month plan to the New York Times editorial board and on “Late Show With David Letterman” on Thursday. Powell and other U.S. officials have said that the Iraqis should be the ones to come up with the timetable.

The U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, told reporters at the Pentagon that there was no set goal of drafting an Iraqi constitution within six months.

“We don’t know how long it will take for them to write the constitution,” Bremer said. “Six months seems to me a reasonable guess as to how long it will take, but there are no deadlines involved here.”

Bremer also expressed disappointment that the United Nations has decided to reduce its presence in Iraq, though he said he did not see any indications of an exodus of aid organizations.

Since the Aug. 19 bombing of the U.N.’s Baghdad headquarters that killed 22 people, the world body has scaled back its staff from 650 to 86 people, and it is expected to leave just a skeleton crew.

“I think it’s regrettable that the U.N. apparently has decided to reduce still further its presence there,” Bremer said. “I think it will make it more difficult for the U.N. to carry out the role which they say, and we say, we’d like them to play.”

Despite Bremer’s uncertainty, the six-month schedule seems to largely align with plans by the Governing Council -- depending on when it starts work on drafting the constitution.

Iraq’s acting foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, told Fox News on Friday that the interim government was ready to provide a timetable for the political transition. Responding to Powell’s suggestion of a six-month time frame, he said, “We believe we can make it.”

But there is a wide range of views within Iraq -- and even within the Governing Council -- on how the constitution should be drafted, with disagreement centering on whether the group that writes the constitution should be elected or appointed.

There also is debate about how secular the government should be and who should be allowed to vote: Should Kurds living on the Iranian side of the border but plan to return to Iraq be included? Should the other 3 million Iraqis living outside the country somehow be enfranchised?

And there are differences among the U.N. officials who might guide the process. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his advisors are leaning toward an Afghanistan-type model, in which a provisional government could take immediate control of the country’s administration while inviting international security forces to remain. After establishing a constitution and holding a referendum to approve it, elections would be held.

In a meeting Wednesday with foreign ministers from the 10 nonpermanent Security Council nations, Powell asked them for their views on the plan, saying he would take the proposals back to Washington but giving no guarantees they would be incorporated into a new resolution.

Governing Council members also have floated a proposal to adopt Iraq’s 1958 constitution as an interim measure to carry them through to elections, after which a permanent constitution could be composed.

But diplomats say a constitution and elections should not be rushed.

Afghanistan, some note, still does not have a constitution after nearly two years under Hamid Karzai’s provisional leadership. “It takes time to get it right,” a senior U.N. official said. “The U.S. is rushing things if it thinks that a constitution and elections can take place within a year.”

Times staff writers Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad and Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report.