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BAGHDAD, Iraq – Interim Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi said Wednesday he was forming a broad
coalition to fight for the post of prime minister
after Iraq's dominant Shiite political party
nominated a conservative candidate.
The haggling over the new government came against
the backdrop of more violence. A car bomb killed two
people and wounded 14 in the northern city of Mosul,
and a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bomb
attack north of Baghdad, officials said.
Allawi, a secular Shiite, skirted criticism of
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was nominated Tuesday by the
United Iraqi Alliance as its candidate for prime
minister. The decision made al-Jaafari the
overwhelming favorite for the post.
When asked if he feared that al-Jaafari's alliance
could impose Islamic rule, Allawi responded that he
opposed the creation of any form of Islamic
government.
"We are liberal powers and we believe in a liberal
Iraq and not an Iraq governed by political
Islamists. But as a person, he is an honorable man,
fighter and a good brother," Allawi said.
Allawi would not provide details of his proposed
coalition.
"There are other lists and other brothers in smaller
lists which won the elections, and we are working
with some of those lists to form a national Iraqi
democratic coalition which believes in Iraq and its
principles," Allawi said at a news conference,
flanked by two interim ministers who are members of
his secular party, The Iraqi List.
Kurdish parties have also weighed in with their own
demands for top jobs, including the post of
president.
Al-Jaafari is one of two interim vice presidents and
leader of a religious party that fought Saddam
Hussein.
In order to take the premiership, al-Jaafari must
build a coalition to gain agreement from Kurds and
others on the presidency and candidates for Cabinet
posts before seeking the support of a majority of
the National Assembly elected Jan. 30.
Al-Jaafari is "a man I can work with, but to discuss
who will be the prime minister of Iraq, this still
needs more time," Kurdish interim vice president
Rowsch Nouri Shaways told reporters. "We aim to get
high rank in the government institutions. We aim to
get one of the top positions and we aim to
participate in the Council of Ministers, suitable
with our percentage in the elections."
Kurdish parties, which won 75 seats in the 275-seat
national assembly, want Jalal Talabani, a secular
Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, to be Iraq's next president.
The Shiite Muslim clergy-backed United Iraqi
Alliance won 140 seats, while Allawi's secular
Shiite Iraqi List party won 40 seats. Nine other
parties divided the remaining 20 seats.
According to the interim constitution adopted last
year under the U.S. occupation, parliament must
elect a president and two vice presidents by a
two-thirds majority, or 182 seats. The three must
then unanimously choose a prime minister subject to
assembly approval.
There is no timetable for the assembly to convene,
and al-Jaafari and his alliance must agree with
other elected parties on who will fill the three
posts and the Cabinet. Even then, the prime minister
has a month to name his Cabinet before the assembly
vote.
Al-Jaafari's selection on Tuesday came after former
Washington ally Ahmad Chalabi dropped out of the
race following three days of round-the-clock
bargaining. Al-Jaafari has been seen as having close
ties to Iran's ruling clergy, though he denies any
links to a government that President Bush has said
is part of an "axis of evil."
For al-Jaafari, 58, to succeed, he'll have to meet
conflicting demands from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and even
Islamic hard-liners within his alliance
Iraq's secular Kurds and many Sunnis worry that al-Jaafari
will try to impose his Dawa Party's brand of
conservative Islam on the country, particularly
because the assembly will be charged with writing a
new constitution.
Al-Jaafari told the AP last week that Islam should
be the official religion of Iraq "and one of the
main sources for legislation, along with other
sources that do not harm Muslim sensibilities."
He skirted his party's official position, which
explicitly urges the "Islamization" of Iraqi society
and the state, including the implementation of
Shariah, or Islamic law.
"Theory is different from practice," al-Jaafari
said.
Allawi also asked Iraq's minority Sunnis, who mostly
boycotted the elections, to play a role in the new
government. Such a move could help deflate the
insurgency, mostly believed to be made up of Sunni
Arabs that once belonged to Saddam's Baath party.
"The missions ahead of us are very big, above all is
achieving national unity by action and not only by
saying, and the integration of the Iraqi sectors
which didn't participate in the elections," Allawi
said.
Allawi has staunchly opposed de-Baathification – the
effort to rid the government and administration of
former Baath Party members.
A soldier from the U.S. Task Force Liberty was
killed Wednesday when assailants set off the bomb
near Tuz, 105 miles north of Baghdad, the military
said.
At least 1,485 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 car bomb exploded in western Mosul, said Essam
Youssef of the city's Jamhouri hospital. Its target
was not immediately clear. Witnesses said no U.S. or
Iraqi forces were in the area.
The U.S. military said two people were killed and 14
wounded in the attack.
Also in Mosul, U.S. soldiers shot and killed a
civilian in a pickup truck who approached their
convoy too closely to pass it, policeman Ahmed
Rashid said. Weary of car bombs, most U.S. military
vehicles carry signs warning drivers to keep away.
AP
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