Text: Bremer Stands By June 30
QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, you have conferred with more than once today that we must have sources for legislation in addition to Islam from other religions.
QUESTION: And you said that this was stated in the 15th of November agreement that the G.C. have solved that. Do you believe that the members of the G.C. signed this agreement, the agreement of 15th of Tishri, without understanding? Do you believe the 15th of September agreement did not take its official time for discussion at the G.C., so that they can settle its final formula and that we have did it very fast?
BREMER: I just want to be clear. I did not say that I thought that the transitional law should draw on other religions for the source of its law. That's not what I said.
It's not what the November 15th agreement said either. It said that the law should recognize that Islam is the religion of the majority of the Iraqi people, but that there should be freedom of religion and religious practices for all Iraqis, irrespective of their religion.
I believe that the members of the governing council fully understood what that said and I believe the members of the governing council support those principles and that we will see those principles reflected in the transitional law when it's finished up here in about a week.
QUESTION: How much longer after the 30th of June do you foresee a coalition or a U.S. presence in Iraq and what circumstances will warrant a complete withdrawal?
BREMER: Well, first of all, I think people tend to confuse the 30th of June and the departure of the coalition authority, which I represent with, somehow, the end of American presence in Iraq. And this, of course, not true.
First of all, the coalition authority will become the world's largest embassy, the largest embassy America has and I suppose therefore the largest embassy any country has anywhere in the world.
There will be thousands of American government officials from all of our major departments still working here, working with the Iraqi people on reconstruction and working with them on their political developments.
And there will be hundreds of thousand -- 100,000 American troops and tens of thousands of coalition forces still here, until such time as the Iraqi security forces are able to assure their own security, which will not be as early as July.
So the major change that happens on June 30th is that the coalition authority passes sovereignty back to the Iraqi government. The occupation ends and coalition forces are no longer occupying forces; they are in partnership with the Iraqi people to protect Iraqi security.
The president has said, repeatedly, that we are not going to leave Iraq until we finish the job and the job is very clearly defined as having a democratic, stable Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors. So America will still be here, many of the coalition countries -- I hope all of them -- will still be here, perhaps more. We are certainly not going to abandon Iraq.
QUESTION: There is a separate consensus between the members of council for preference to be the governing authority or governing body during this transitional period.
QUESTION: How do you view this situation?
BREMER: Well, it's not too surprising that that's their preference. But the question is, what is going to work? And what is going to be recommended by the United Nations as their advice to the governing council and to us?
And as I said earlier, I would prefer not to speculate on some of the many dozens of ideas that are out there until we hear from the United National.
We're looking forward to that. We think the U.N. has an important role to play here as an independent player, and we are hoping that they will play an active role in the months ahead.
But I don't want to speculate on exactly how that's going to look until we actually hear from them.
QUESTION: Ambassador Bremer, do you think that a United Nations Security Council resolution would be required in order to extend the role of the United Nations or expand that role, as you described?
BREMER: The role of the United Nations?
QUESTION: Yes.
BREMER: You know, I'm not a U.N. expert, so I would prefer that that question be answered by people who follow the U.N. more closely.
I think the principled point is that I think we have said all along that we believe the U.N. has a vital role to play in the reconstruction of Iraq.
I am very pleased that they have come back. I have been encouraging them to come back since August. And we are going to work as closely as we can with the secretary general and his colleagues to ensure that they have the security they need to carry out the independent role that has been given them.
Whether they need more U.N. resolutions is a question really for the lawyers in New York and not for me.
Thank you very much.
END
© 2004 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
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