BAGHDAD, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Thursday the United Nations will back early general elections in Iraq as long as adequate security can be guaranteed.
Brahimi, who heads a nine-man team exploring the feasibility of early elections, made the comment after a meeting with Iraq's leading Shiite religious authority, grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the holy city of Najaf in central Iraq.
He said al-Sistani insists on holding general elections for a transitional legislative council before the transfer of power to Iraqis by July 1, in contrast to a U.S. plan to choose a government by regional caucuses.
"We fully agree with Sayyid Sistani on the need to hold elections but the best possible conditions should be available for that," Brahimi told reporters after the two-hour meeting.
It was not immediately known if al-Sistani's acknowledgement that the polls should be held under good conditions implied he would be flexible on the date.
The United Nations is expected to meet later Thursday with the Committee of Muslim Ulemas, representing the highest Sunni authority. The panel opposes having elections under the existing security conditions.
Two massive bomb attacks which killed 100 people in Iraq in recent days could cast doubt on the feasibility of early balloting.
