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US Defense Secretary Donald H.Rumsfeld said Thursday that the United States will not permit an Iranian-style theocratic government to run the postwar Iraq.
"If you're suggesting, how would we feel about an Iranian-type government with a few clerics running everything in the country, the answer is: That isn't going to happen," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in his Pentagon conference room.
"The next step is to see that the Iraqi people begin to be involved in their communities and in the development of a national government," he said.
"This is beginning to happen," Rumsfeld said, citing as an example the joint Iraqi-US security patrols carried out in some areas.
The US defense chief urged caution and patience as Iraq establishes first an "interim authority" in Baghdad, to be followed by a full-fledged government and a mechanism for drafting a national constitution.
"There will be the beginning of an interim authority soon," he said. "I don't know quite what `soon' means." He added: "It's a little early to be impatient about it, so I can't be impatient, although the natural thing is to be impatient about it. You want the Iraqis to govern themselves."
(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2003)
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