U.S. LOSES PRESIDENTIAL BATTLE
By Jack Fairweather

Daily Telegraph (UK)
June 2, 2004

Original source: Daily Telegraph

BAGHDAD -- Sheikh Ghazi Yawer, the new president of Iraq, is not a man the Americans would naturally feel comfortable with.

He has called on U.S. forces to leave the country as soon as possible, said the new Iraqi government must be fully sovereign, and denounced April's military operations in Fallujah as unlawful.

Such outspoken views are among the reasons the American administration fought hard to keep him out of office.

They may yet endear him to the Iraqi public, which knows little about the man who will become Iraq's first president after Saddam Hussein.

One thing is certain. He is unlikely to take a back seat in mapping out Iraq's future relations with Washington.

"We chose him because he speaks his mind and every Iraqi will respect that," said Mahmud Othman, one of the new ministers of state.

"He knows how to appeal to the Iraqi people." Sheikh Ghazi's appointment marks an extraordinary rise to power for the former vice-president of a telecommunications firm in Saudi Arabia, even if his post is a largely ceremonial one.

Born in 1958, in Mosul, he is a Sunni Muslim and sheikh of the Shammar tribe, one of the largest in the Arab world.

The tribe extends over several Arab nations and provides powerful bonds of kinship in the Middle East.

The mother of Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, was from the Shammar.

Sheikh Ghazi left Iraq to study engineering, first in Saudi Arabia and then at Georgetown University [Note: Actually, his degree is from George Washington University. -H.A.] in Washington before returning to the Middle East.

Acquaintances during his 15-year residency in the Saudi kingdom describe him as a conservative family man.

"He has lived the life of a tribal sheikh, which meant he didn't have to work for money," said Jawhar Sourchi, a Kurdish businessman.

Members of the Saudi royal family, to whom Sheikh Ghazi is related, invested heavily in his telecommunications firm. Until his return to Iraq last year, he played little role in politics, staying out out of the inter-party squabbling of Iraq's opposition-in-exile.

When the the Iraqi Governing Council, the embryonic administration, was appointed by the Americans last July, the sheikh was chosen largely on the merit of his tribe which has a large Shia branch and close relations with the Kurds.

His tribe is well respected in the north for refusing to take part in Saddam's forced Arabization policy there, under which Kurds were removed and their homes were given to Arabs.

"He is seen as a man whose tribe commands great respect. He's someone who can appeal to all sides," said one council member.

His low profile on the council, until his turn came to serve as acting president of the U.S.-appointed body last month, has also left him relatively untainted by accusations of being an American stooge.

Indeed, he found his political voice in criticizing the US-led administration in Iraq.

In April he threatened to resign from the council over the US military's engagement with fighters in Fallujah, the center of the restive Sunni Triangle.

He has since demanded that Iraq's government be fully sovereign and has criticized the current draft resolution before the United Nations Security Council as not granting full sovereignty.

On the vexed issue of the role of coalition forces, he has said they should remain only in the "short term." Such views have not endeared him to officials in Washington.

His appointment was opposed by both Paul Bremer, the American pro-consul of Iraq, and Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. envoy -- setting the scene for possible rifts between the future Iraqi government and Washington.

American officials have said he lacks political experience, unlike their preferred candidate, Adnan Pachachi, an octogenarian Sunni politician.

Mr. Pachachi was seen as a man capable of weathering the vagaries of Arab opinion and remaining steadfastedly loyal to the Bush administration. Sheikh Ghazi got the presidency only after Mr. Pachachi belatedly turned it down yesterday morning.

Now many American officials fear that he may be something of a loose cannon who, lacking a political support base, may be manipulated by the new government.

"We can't be entirely sure what's coming next," said one U.S. official.

The sheikh will be sure to try to patch up his many differences with the Bush administration in the coming weeks to smooth the way for billions of dollars of American reconstruction aid to pour into the country.

But he is also likely to remain an advocate for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

For many Iraqis, the spat over choosing the president is the first inkling of the struggle for full sovereignty that lies ahead.