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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A French-educated finance
minister and a former London physician emerged
Monday as the top candidates to be Iraq's next prime
minister after the clergy-backed Shiite Muslim
alliance failed to get the necessary majority of
votes to control the legislature.
The prominence of urbane, moderate, Western-oriented
figures appeared designed to counter concern in
Washington that Iran's influence will grow in Iraq
after a Shiite-dominated government takes power -
even though the ultimate decision may rest with a
reclusive elderly cleric.
Meanwhile, violence continued, with roadside bombs
on Monday killing a U.S. soldier and three Iraqi
National Guard troops. Officials also said
insurgents blew up an oil pipeline near Kirkuk and
killed two senior police officers in Baghdad.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister, and
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the interim vice president, were
said to be the leading candidates for prime minister
as backroom trading for the top posts in the new
government began in earnest Monday.
The consultations were necessary because the United
Iraqi Alliance failed to secure the two-thirds
majority in the newly elected assembly that would
have allowed it to control the legislature and
install whomever it wanted as president.
The Kurds, who are poised to become kingmakers in
the new Iraq, have already said they want Jalal
Talabani, a secular Sunni Kurd and leader of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to be Iraq's next
president, a largely ceremonial post. The Shiites
may seek a deal with the Kurds to back Talabani for
president in return for Kurdish support for their
prime ministerial choice.
The Kurds, who comprise about 15 percent of Iraq's
population, have demanded the new constitution
legalize Kurdish self-rule in the north. They also
want an end to what they call "Arabization" of
Kirkuk and other northern areas where most of the
Arabs are Sunni Muslims.
But the Shiites know they must move carefully,
particularly if they want to extend a hand to the
minority Sunni Arabs to form an inclusive government
and tame a virulent insurgency. Many Sunni Arabs,
who make up about 20 percent of the population,
stayed home on election day, either out of fear of
violence or to support a boycott call by radical
clerics opposed to the U.S. military.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamel Kharrazi welcomed the
results of the Jan. 30 elections and said his
country expected Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority to
work with the country's other ethnic groups.
"Certainly it is promotion of democracy and in that
respect we welcome that," Kharrazi said Monday
during a visit to Hungary. "We hope there will be
very good relations between Iran and the future
government of Iraq."
Iran, though not Arab, is predominantly Shiite, and
its government has close ties with many Iraqi Shiite
leaders.
Kharrazi also said the elections in Iraq were an
indication of changes in the region.
"So far, the Shiite population, although they are
the majority, have been deprived of their rights,"
Kharrazi said. "Now, after this election, they have
the majority, but this does now mean that they would
neglect or deny the rights of the minorities."
Three other American soldiers were wounded Monday
when the bomb detonated near their patrol outside
the town of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad,
the military said.
At least 1,461 members of the U.S. military have
died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March
2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The election results for the National Assembly,
announced Sunday, gave the clergy-backed United
Iraqi Alliance 48 percent of the vote, the Kurdish
alliance 26 percent, and the ticket led by interim
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who
supported strong ties to Washington, only 14
percent.
The National Assembly's first task is to elect a
president and two vice presidents by a two-thirds
majority. The three then choose a new prime minister
subject to assembly approval.
The parties that make up the alliance - the Islamic
Dawa Party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq and former Pentagon protege Ahmad
Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress - huddled for
talks to decide on a prime ministerial candidate.
Al-Jaafari was the Dawa Party's choice, while SCIRI
nominated Abdul-Mahdi, said Humam Hamoudi, a
spokesman for the United Iraqi Alliance. He said the
alliance would decide on Tuesday.
But it may ultimately be Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
who decides. Al-Sistani's tacit endorsement is
believed to have led to the Alliance's electoral
victory. An official in al-Sistani's office said
representatives from the alliance would visit the
elderly cleric on Tuesday but that he has not
endorsed anyone.
Among other leading Shiites, Chalabi has also thrown
his name into the contest for prime minister.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a turbaned cleric who led the
ticket and has close links with Iran, has said he's
not interested in the job.
The French-educated Abdul-Mahdi, who was born in
1942 and is the son of a respected Shiite cleric,
was a leading SCIRI politician before becoming the
interim finance minister.
Al-Jaafari, a physician, was born in 1947 and lived
in London before serving on the now-disbanded Iraqi
Governing Council.
Allawi, the secular Shiite who ran the government
for the last eight months, had been discussed as a
compromise candidate, but his chances dimmed after
his ticket finished a distant third. U.S. officials,
speaking privately, have suggested he might get a
vice presidential position with responsibility for
security.
Alliance spokesman Hamoudi said the prime
ministerial candidate would be chosen on his ability
to unite the splintering population.
"We want the new government to be a joint
government, which will include the other parties and
political entities that did not participate in the
elections," he said, a reference to the Shiites'
determination to draw in Sunnis already alienated in
postwar Iraq.
Election commission officials did not know when the
new National Assembly would meet. Competitors have
two more days to lodge complaints or dispute the
results. So far, none have been registered.
AP Online
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