BAGHDAD, April 24: The retired US general overseeing Iraq’s reconstruction promised on Thursday to remove Baghdad’s self-proclaimed mayor if residents of the capital rejected him.
But Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, who declared himself the city’s new administrator earlier this month, met aides he has appointed to run Baghdad’s public services and toured hospitals and water plants, undaunted by the threat from the general, Jay Garner.
Mr Zubaidi has appointed 22 committees to function in place of ministries, including health, education, water, electricity, oil and industry.
Mr Garner, put in charge of rebuilding Iraq by the United States after the three-week war that ousted Saddam Hussein, reiterated that Zubaidi was not recognized by Washington or its allies.
“The coalition doesn’t have a candidate and if the people of Baghdad are unhappy with him, all they have to do is come and tell us and we will ask him to leave. And we will show him how to leave,” Garner told a news conference in Baghdad.
Zubaidi has said he was elected by people representing clerics, academics, Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims, Christians, writers and journalists — although he has not said how or when a vote took place or who organised it.
“We are a group of independent opposition Iraqis,” he told Qatar-based al-Jazeera television on Thursday.
“I was appointed by the Iraqi people and the tribes and we were asked to expand our work,” he said. “We gained our legitimacy from the people. I have nothing to do with the Americans.”
Most Iraqis interviewed by Reuters said they knew nothing about any vote.
Zubaidi has said he is just administering civil services that broke down during the bombing of Baghdad — not heading a government.
He has links to the Iraqi National Congress (INC), headed by pro-US exile Ahmad Chalabi, but an INC official said he did not have any political affiliation to the group.
The self-styled mayor was snubbed by Garner’s administration — not for the first time — when he was sidelined from a meeting on Thursday involving the retired US general, his reconstruction team and about 60 Iraqi academics and community leaders to discuss rebuilding the capital.—Reuters
