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Iraq

Iraqis near agreement on key ministries

2006-05-03

BAGHDAD - Following weeks of wrangling over government formation that has fuelled sectarian strife in Iraq, parliamentary blocs have never seemed closer to forming a fully-fledged cabinet. In a bid to strike a power balance, they have agreed that the key ministries of interior and foreign affairs should not fall prey to an interfactional war and instead be given to independent political figures approved by all parties. Now there's a sensible solution. Prime Minister-designate Jawad Al Maliki was asked by Iraqi president Jalal Al Talebani last month to come up with a cabinet line-up, a task that was marred by sectarian-based disagreements amid Iraq’s delicate sectarian political system. But now only less than a week away from the cabinet formation deadline, Iraqi top politicians engaged on Tuesday in negotiations over ministerial portfolios in the new cabinet. One day before the country’s parliament is set to reconvene on Wednesday, observers and politicians believe the announcement of the ministerial posts is imminent. “There is extensive flexibility and accord among all parties in a bid to expedite the appointment of the Cabinet in the coming few days,” said Saad Jawad Qandil, MP in the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). “Negotiations are ongoing and now the focus is on the agreement on the distribution of the security ministries,” Salam Al Zawbaawy of the United Iraqi Front said. In fact, no government post has been competed over by the various political factions more than those of the security and foreign affairs. However UIA MP Bahaa Al Aaraji affirmed that all political blocs have agreed that those two portfolios should be given to two independent political figures, a Sunni and a Shiite. The two figures should be endorsed by all political factions, he added, especially the UIA, being the largest bloc with 128 seats in the 275-parliament. Al Aaraji, nevertheless, denied that anyone has been named as candidate for the posts, adding that the blocs were anticipating Wednesday’s parliament session for further negotiations. He stressed that the UIA is keen on the May 9 deadline for announcing the cabinet line-up. Meanwhile, parliamentary blocs have almost agreed to appoint as secretary-general Iyad Allawi, whose bloc got 25 seats in parliament, to the independent council for national security that comprises of leaders of the major parliamentary blocs.

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Iraq

Seven Car Bombs Rock Baghdad

2006-04-25

Car bombings and shootings killed 20 people and wounded more than 100 in Baghdad yesterday as Washington stepped up pressure for Shiite Premier-designate Jawad Al-Maliki to form a government and halt Iraq’s slide into civil war. Insurgents set off seven car bombs, two of them at a Baghdad university, security officials said. Five people died in the coordinated attack on the Mustansiriya University that also wounded 25. A car bomb in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Bab Al-Muhaddam killed three people and wounded 25, while another in Tahrir Square in the city center wounded 15. Two car bombs also went off within minutes of each other in east Baghdad, wounding nine. A seventh bomb exploded in the upscale Mansur neighborhood, wounding seven. Six people died in a series of shootings in south Baghdad’s restive Al-Dura district, while one civilian was killed near the restive city of Baquba, north of the capital. Thirty-two bodies of Iraqi police and security forces recruits were discovered in two areas of Baghdad yesterday, Interior Ministry sources said. All 32 were from the town of Ramadi in the insurgent heartland of Anbar province, which is fiercely opposed to the government, the sources said. One group of 17 were kidnapped and then shot dead after they signed up for the police force one week ago. They were found in the Baghdady district of the capital. The other 15 were found bullet-riddled in two cars in Abu Ghraib, on the western edge of Baghdad. “All the men had bullets in their heads,” an Interior Ministry official said. Further north, four police and two insurgents were killed in clashes near ousted President Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, police said.

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Iraq

Jaafari’s Dawa party chooses two candidates for Iraq PM

2006-04-21

BAGHDAD - Embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is out of the running for the post of premier and his party has selected two other potential candidates, an MP from his Dawa party said on Friday. “We had meetings between ourselves and the Moqtada Sadr group and have come up with two names, Jawad Al Maliki and Ali Al Adeeb, as candidates for the post of prime minister,” said Hassan Al Senaed, a Shiite MP from Jaafari’s Dawa party. The radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s bloc has 32 seats in parliament and has been a strong supporter of Jaafari. “Our discussions continue with other groups in the Shiite alliance and also other parliamentary blocs about these two candidates,” Senaed told AFP, adding that Jaafari was no longer a candidate. “We want to check their response and by 4:00 pm (1200 GMT) today, we will present these names to the seven leaders of the Shiite parties that mainly make up the alliance for their consideration.” If the candidates are approved, “the names will be forwarded to the 130 members of the United Iraqi Alliance for a final opinion”, he added. Senaed said that the party was pushing for a consensus decision on the new candidate rather than going for a vote. He further said that the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) will not present a candidate for the prime minister’s post. “It is our understanding with them that if Jaafari withdraws they will not present any candidate to replace him,” Senaed said. In February when Jaafari was selected by the alliance as candidate for the premier’s post, he had beaten SCIRI’s Adel Abdel Mahdi by a single vote. On Thursday, Jaafari indicated that he was ready to drop his candidacy, offering the much-needed breakthrough to Iraq’s political deadlock over forming a national unity government for which elections were held in December.

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Iraq

Iraqis Attempt to Form "National Unity" Govt

2005-12-25

The governing Shiite coalition called on Iraqis yesterday to accept results showing the religious bloc leading in parliamentary elections and moved ahead with efforts to form a “national unity” government. But as they reached out to Sunnis and others, senior officials in the United Iraqi Alliance headed by cleric Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim deepened the postelection turmoil by claiming that extremists and Saddam loyalists were the ones questioning the results. “There will be no going back and no new elections,” said senior alliance official Jawad Al-Maliki. “The results must be accepted and the will of the people must be respected.” The alliance said that preliminary results showing them with a clear lead in the Dec. 15 elections were not the result of fraud or intimidation. They charged that many violations took place in Sunni areas, and claimed that many of its “opponents” conspired with insurgents to alter results. “We, the United Iraqi Alliance, were surprised by the results. We were expecting more seats,” Al-Maliki said at a news conference attended by five senior alliance members. “The opponents have made it clear through their statements and warnings that they stand alongside the terrorists.” He was referring to statements by senior Sunni politicians who openly thanked some insurgent groups for not attacking polling stations, and to reports that masked militants were guarding some of them. Adnan Al-Dulaimi, the head of the main Sunni coalition known as the Iraqi Accordance Front openly thanked “resistance groups” in the days after the elections. “They have stated that what they call ‘resistance’ has protected the ballot boxes in their areas. This is a confession that rigging has happened,” Al-Maliki said. The harsh comments demonstrated the difficulty that Iraqi parties will face when they sit down to form a government after final results from the elections are released in early January. The officials added that the alliance had begun talks with other groups about the possibility of forming a “national unity” government.

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Iraq-Jordan

Iraq's New PM Promises 'Clean' Govt

2005-04-09

Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News Snipers yesterday killed three clerics in fresh violence as Iraq's newly appointed premier began the process of building a Cabinet he said must include efficient technocrats and nationalists with a "clean history". I have a hard time seeing three dead holy men as a bad thing, but I guess it's evidence of on-going sectarian violence... Despite the weeks of delay and bickering in nominating Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Washington expressed hope Iraq's political calendar providing for a permanent constitution and definitive elections by the end of 2005 would be respected. Jaafari said Thursday after his appointment by new President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies that he would work to form a government within two weeks, although he theoretically has a month to do so. They're a little behind schedule, what with all the arguing and such... "The ministries need efficient technocrats, nationalists with a good and clean history and team players who are comfortable working within a diverse setting," Jaafari told reporters. He promised "to fight corruption and institute administrative reforms" after several members of his United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) accused the outgoing government of Iyad Allawi of breaking the law and hiring senior members of the banned Baath party of ousted leader Saddam Hussein. Parliament is expected to vote tomorrow on a UIA motion to rebuke and sanction Allawi's government. At least they're not shooting them... Jaafari refused to go into details over the government line-up but one of his senior aides Jawad Al-Maliki said a quarter of the 30 or so Cabinet posts will go to women. Maliki said the UIA will have the important ministries of finance, interior and oil. He said the Kurdish coalition partners will retain the Foreign Ministry now headed by Hoshyar Zebari and "may get the Planning Ministry as a consolation for oil which they had been fighting to clinch." The Sunnis, who largely boycotted the elections but are being assiduously courted by both sides, will get at least six ministries, including defense, he said. I guess it depends on which ones they pick. If it's anybody remotely associated with the Association of Muslim Scholars they can hang it up... Meanwhile, three Shiite clerics were killed by sniper fire on the southern approaches of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. The men where coming from the overwhelmingly Shiite south to take part in a demonstration in the capital called for today by Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr when they were shot in Dura, the official said. "Another Tater demonstration? Mahmoud, just shoot them!" "Hokay, boss!" A Turkish driver meanwhile died of wounds suffered in an attack on his convoy in northern Iraq late Thursday that wounded six others traveling with him, police said. In the main southern city of Basra, three masked men shot dead an officer in the new Iraqi Army as he was dining Thursday, an army spokesman said. The same night, four US soldiers were wounded in the northern town of Shurgat when insurgents hurled a hand grenade at them, a US military statement said. Another US military statement yesterday said a US Marine died two days ago in a vehicle accident during combat operations in the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, west of the capital. Also, a US soldier was killed by a bomb in northern Iraq yesterday, the US Army said. The soldier was killed around noon when a homemade bomb exploded near Hawijah, in Kirkuk province, a statement said without providing further details.

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Iraq-Jordan

Iraqi Parliament Gets Ready to Pick Speaker

2005-04-03

Iraq's new Parliament was set to meet again today to choose a speaker. Leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority issued an ultimatum to Sunni MPs to accept a compromise nominee for the post of Parliament speaker as MPs prepared to meet for their third session since Jan. 30 elections. The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which controls 146 seats in the 275-member Parliament, said it would veto Sunni MP Mishaan Al-Juburi and told Sunnis who did not like the decision to leave the assembly. "We have agreed on the nominees, and the candidate for the speakership has been endorsed by a majority of Sunnis," Jawad Al-Maliki, a senior member of the UIA, told AFP. He was referring to Hajem Al-Hassani, a compromise candidate more acceptable to Shiites, who maintains he is only interested in the post as a last resort. "If there is a minority of Sunnis that does not agree with the choice, well, they are free to withdraw from the assembly." "So piss off. What part about 'majority' don't you understand?"

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