An 30,000 Shiite Iraqis took to the streets of Basra Thursday demanding direct election. The crowds chanted “No, no USA. Yes, yes for elections” “and “No to America! We’re coming to you, Sistani!” Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani is the powerful Shiite cleric who has opposed the U.S. plans to form an indirectly elected interim government. Sistani has called for a truly democratic election where he wants all of the Iraqi people to be able to vote on the future of the Iraqi government A close representative of Sistani told Abu Dhabi TV that if the U.S. rejects the call for open elections, Sistani would issue a fatwa that would greatly deprive the U.S-led governing council of legitimacy in the eyes of Shiite Iraqis. The BBC is reporting that the second most powerful Shiite cleric, Hojat Al-Islam Ali Abdulhakim Alsafi has written a letter to the U.S. and British questioning whether the proposed transition plan had more to do with US elections than Iraqi interests.

Meanwhile, the U.S. head of the occupation, Paul Bremer, rushed back to Washington to discuss how to save the American plan to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government by July 1. Bremer is expected to meet with President Bush today and withUnited Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday.

The Washington Post reports the White House is now reaching out to the United Nations with hopes that the world body can play a role in the transfer of power. And as a sign the U.S. is reaching out to other nations on the UN Security Council, administration officials said Thursday the U.S. may reverse itself and allow France, Germany and Russian to bid on Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

In others news from Iraq, the Associated Press is reporting that three foreign contractors with Halliburton subsidiary Kellog, Brown and Root died in Iraq earlier this week when their convoy came under attack.