The following is a complete transcript of NBC's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, the president of the interim government of Iraq, Ghazi Al-Yawar, and U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV).
NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS"
DECEMBER 5, 2004
SPEAKERS: TIM RUSSERT, HOST
GHAZI AL-YAWAR, PRESIDENT, INTERIM GOVERNMENT OF IRAQ U.S. SENATOR HARRY REID (D-NV)
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RUSSERT: First, Iraq. And here with us is the president of that nation.
Mr. President, welcome back.
AL-YAWAR: Thank you.
RUSSERT: Let me show you some news on the wires as we speak this morning. The U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, said bluntly, "It is a mess in Iraq."
Asked whether it was possible to hold elections under current conditions, Brahimi said, quote, "If the circumstances stay as they are, I don't think so."
Your reaction?
AL-YAWAR: Well, we still have two months to elections.
We believe in Iraq that the main objective of these people who are committing these atrocities unjustifiably is to stop us from having our first chance to taste the harvest of liberating Iraq.
We still have two months. We should still consistent, and we should keep the schedule according to what it is. That's the 30th of January.
RUSSERT: But if the United Nations cannot cooperate with you, can you have elections?
AL-YAWAR: Well, the date was chartered by the United Nations Resolution 1546. We are asking the United Nations, the whole international community, to help us. We do not think that postponing elections or delaying it will solve the problem. Actually, it will prolong the agony for Iraqis, and you will have more resentment in the Iraqi society.
RUSSERT: Adnan Pachachi, who is a leader in the Sunni community, said this:
"The first reason to delay the Iraqi elections is that we should give an opportunity for those who are still reluctant or unwilling to take part in the elections in order to have a dialogue with them and to see whether we can address some of their demands and grievances and also try to persuade them that it's in their interest to join the elections.
"The second reason is the security situation, which is still rather precarious and uncertain, and therefore a little more time would be much better."
You can't even secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad. How can you possibly have free and fair elections?
AL-YAWAR: That's been made deliberately by these people who are fighting, the insurgents, in order to present this gloomy picture. The challenge is to move ahead and get the election on time.
The problem, it's not (ph) the people are reluctant. Yes, there is a problem in the security situation, and people are scared of going and registering their names, of reprisals and atrocities of these armies of darkness. If we can do something in these areas by enhancing the security situation, lots of people are willing to join in now.
We are not talking about people want to be in or not. Everybody is committed. But the problem is, they are fearing reprisal of these people who are doing these bad actions.
RUSSERT: But the insurgency seems to be very widespread. We now have more U.S. troops heading for Iraq and in Iraq than we had before the invasion. Americans were told by many Iraqis that we would be greeted as liberators, with flowers and sweets.
Could this insurgency be as difficult and strong as it is without the support of many of the Iraqi people?
AL-YAWAR: I think it's strong without the support of Iraqi people. They are frightening people. If you see Mosul city and Al Anbar, they brought destruction and problems to these areas.
AL-YAWAR: They fled the areas after everything -- after they put the people in the crossfire.
The thing is how are we going to talk to these people? They don't have faces. They don't have leaderships. They don't have ideologies. They don't have any demands. They are just there, want to bring the old regime back into Iraq.
And we are not going to go back to the time of the pre-war Iraq after all. With all of the ups and downs, it's much better without having the old regime back.
RUSSERT: But could the insurgents, how could they live off the land? How could they be as organized as they are without the Iraqi populace tolerating them or at least not turning them in?
AL-YAWAR: Well, people are passive, yes, because they have been held helpless by these people. It's like hoodlums where they frighten people. The people are innocent and law-abiding citizens, and they are just frightened, scared for their families, for their children.
And these people are -- most of them are kidnapping people and selling them to another gang, a third gang, then a fourth gang. And this is slavery. This is what they are doing right now in Iraq.
I mean, the whole international community should understand that and should help us stop all of this nonsense.
RUSSERT: In October, you said, "Yes, the election is scheduled for January 31, but the date is not sacred. If we see elections held by that date without security or conditions favoring a fair and comprehensive vote and that that, in turn, will have a negative impact on our country, then we will not hesitate to change the date."
You were concerned and are concerned about security.
AL-YAWAR: Yes.
RUSSET: How can you hold an election if vast numbers of Iraqis, like yourself, Sunnis in the Sunni Triangle, are not allowed to vote or are incapable of voting because of lack of security?
AL-YAWAR: Well, what I said before I still believe in. There is no sacred date. But the thing is, this is a challenge that Iraqis have to take. And after reviewing the situation, I think the worst thing to do is to postpone elections. This will give a tactical victory to the insurgents, to the forces of darkness.
