Iraq Shi'ites support a Kurd as president –Talabani 15.2.2005

QALA CHWALAN, 15 Feb 2005 (Reuters) - Iraq's Kurdish alliance, buoyed by its strong showing in the election, is determined to hold the presidency of the new government, a move supported by the Shi'ites, a Kurdish leader said on Sunday.

"We are not playing a role of siding with one bloc against another," Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told Reuters at his headquarters.

"But without reaching agreement there is some kind of understanding, yes. The Shi'ites are insisting on having the post of prime minister and they are supporting Kurds to have the post of president."

The two main Kurdish parties, Talabani's PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barzani, which were rivals for a decade but have now joined in an alliance which won 25 percent of the vote in the historic Jan. 30 Iraqi elections.

Their success has put them in a strong bargaining position as horse-trading to determine jobs in the next government enters the final rounds. The two parties have agreed Talabani is their candidate for president.

The election was won by a Shi'ite-led list of largely Islamist parties called the United Iraqi Alliance. It garnered 48 percent of the vote -- slightly less than many expected -- and will have to forge alliances to secure a majority in the 275-seat National Assembly.

A coalition led by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi came third in the poll, winning about 14 percent of the vote.

Both Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, and the religious-oriented United Iraqi Alliance have been making overtures to the Kurdish leadership, hoping to strike a deal that will give them a commanding position in the assembly.

Talabani would not be drawn on which bloc the Kurds would choose, but he said his presidential bid was supported by Shi'ite groups generally.

He played down suggestions that his secular Kurdish leadership would have difficulty working alongside a Shi'ite religious alliance led by Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

"I agree with the ideas of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, he thinks that Islam should not be the only source of law," Talabani said.

UNIFYING ROLE

Talibani said the Kurds could play the major role in unifying Iraq by engaging the Sunni Arabs -- who face marginalisation after a low election turnout and a boycott by some groups demanding a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces.

While describing the Sunnis as having made a "big mistake" in not lending more support to the U.S.-led coalition and U.S.-backed government, Talabani said the political process should not exclude Sunni Arabs.

"(Kurds) can play this role of reconciliation," he said. "We have good relations with Arab nationalist movements ... with many small Sunni groups and Sunni tribal chiefs."

Talabani would be the first Kurdish president in Iraq's history, although the role is largely symbolic.

He dismissed suggestions that his appointment, which would involve joining a united Iraqi government, could dent Kurdish demands for independence -- nearly 90 percent of Kurds recently voted for secession in an informal poll.

"Independence is impractical," Talabani said. "I don't see any possibility for an (independent) Kurdish state."

Reuters         

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