BAGHDAD, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Iraq's top Shiite Muslim leader says he will accept a short delay in elections to form an Iraqi government, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported Friday.
The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, 73, said a brief postponement in national elections would be tolerable provided it is under the oversight of a U.N. Security Council resolution.
The cleric told the magazine, the U.S. decision to transfer power to an interim authority selected in regional meetings was a delaying tactic. He said any non-elected authority taking over from the U.S.-led coalition must have only a limited authority.
The ayatollah had called for general elections before June 30, when the coalition's power over Iraq is to be transferred to the Iraqi people.
But U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had sent a fact-finding delegation to Baghdad, said Thursday general elections cannot take place before the June 30 deadline.
