BAGHDAD, May 27 (UPI) -- The scientist and humanitarian tagged by the United Nations to be Iraq's interim head of state beginning June 30 has declined the job.
Hussain al-Shahristani, an Iraqi scientist who was imprisoned and tortured by Saddam Hussein, lived in exile in London and is still registered as a professor at the University of Surrey, will apparently not be Iraq's first postwar prime minister, the Times of London reported Thursday.
"Mr. Shahristani ... has himself clarified that he would prefer to serve his country in other ways," said a statement from the office of U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Regarded as one of the most principled figures of his generation, al-Shahristani is, however, a political novice. His relative obscurity, academic background and moderate views were precisely the qualities that are being sought in whoever takes the helm on June 30.
A devout Shia Muslim, he is a confidant of the influential spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, but is also an advocate of creating a secular state in Iraq.
