UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraq is "at a crossroads" and leaders must seize the opportunity to build a "sovereign, stable and prosperous country that embraces all its components," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy to Iraq said on Monday.
"Thousands took to the streets, demanding their country to use its full potential for the benefit of all Iraqis," Haines-Blachart told the UN Security Council.
"However, they are paying an unimaginable price to make their voices heard," she said, adding that since early October, when the protests and the ensuing bloody campaign began, more than 400 people had been killed and 19,000 wounded.
This comes at a time when Human Rights Watch confirmed in a report yesterday that security forces throughout Iraq are still using "lethal force" against demonstrators, despite orders to stop.
The organization called on the competent authorities in Iraq to take urgent measures to prevent the security forces from using excessive force against the protesters.
Meanwhile, Ammar al-Hakim, head of the National Wisdom Current bloc, said yesterday that political forces are seeking to speed up the nomination of a popular prime minister, in addition to the availability of standards of competence and management in the country.
Hakim said during a meeting with the French ambassador to Iraq, Brno Obert, that «the next government will be an interim working to prepare for early elections in the light of the fair election law, which is being legislated in the House of Representatives and the new commission away from political influence», according to an official statement.
In the same context, the agency «Alsumaria News», the night before last, a document issued by the President of the Iraqi Council of Representatives Mohammed Halbousi, including addressing President Barham Saleh, commissioned a candidate for prime minister within 15 days.
On the other hand, confirmed the bloc Sairon that yesterday, will be the deadline for the submission of political blocs proposals on the election law.