COMMENT

ON Sunday this space commented on a change of policy by the new team in charge of the occupying powers' Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid (ORHA) in Baghdad. The change, which was widely reported, concerned a slowing down of plans to form the nucleus of an Iraqi government and the indefinite extension of the role of the UK/US administration. Yesterday the new boss of ORHA, Paul Bremer, denied these reports and said “I don't know where they are coming from because we haven't delayed anything.” It is worth trying to clarify the position because it touches on a fundamental problem that Britain and the United States face in Iraq's political rehabilitation. On May 5 Jay Garner, the former head of ORHA, said in Baghdad that “by mid-May you will see the beginning of a nucleus of a temporary Iraqi government with an Iraqi face on it that is totally dealing with the coaltion.” That seemed clear enough but some observers immediately said that General Garner had set an unwise and impossible target because he would not be able to find a sufficiently representative body of Iraqi political opinion in the time available and would have to rely too much on former exiles now returned to Iraq. This seems to have been accepted by Mr Bremer, even if he does not think it is a change or a delay. An Interim Authority with Iraqi representation will come into existence in the summer charged with preparing Iraq for the transition to democracy, but it will not be a government or a government-in-waiting.