For Immediate Release
May 24, 2004

Global Messenger

From remarks by Secretary of State Powell in an interview with Westwood One Radio Network, 5/21/04

On June 30th, power will be transferred to an Iraqi interim government.

The interim government will consist of a cabinet of ministers -- many of whom are already working fully on their own at this point.

There will also be a president, two vice presidents and a prime minister. Those individuals are now being looked at now.

Secretary Powell and his United Nations Security Council colleagues are working on a UN resolution that will endorse this arrangement.

Ambassador Brahimi worked with the United States in Afghanistan. He did a brilliant job in working to put in place a new Afghan Government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai.

We need and appreciate the work of the United Nations.

Secretary Powell is working closely with Kofi Annan and Ambassador Brahimi to see if we can do as good a job in Iraq as we did in Afghanistan.

This is a government that we only want to last six or seven months.

It will be a caretaker government that gets Iraq ready for national assembly elections at the end of the year or in January.

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