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ARBIL,
Mar 24 (IPS) - Close to two months after the
announcement of election results, Shia and Kurd
leaders say an agreement over the formation of a new
government is imminent.
Agreement on a Shia-Kurd coalition is expected to be
signed Saturday.
The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), a Shia coalition
backed by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is set to be the
leading party in government with 146 seats in the
275-member Iraqi National Assembly.
The Kurdistan Alliance List (KAL) dominated by the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was placed second with 77
seats after the election Jan. 30. That makes Kurds
essential to formation of a government, and put them
in a strong bargaining position.
Kurd leaders have been negotiating hard on four
major conditions for joining a government.
Prime among these is a guarantee of regional
autonomy which would give them the right to
administer their region without interference from
Baghdad.
Kurds have asked also for settlement of the status
of oil-rich Kirkuk in accordance with article 58 of
the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL). That law
provides for the return of tens of thousands of Kirk
and Turkomen refugees to Kirkuk. They had been
ethnically cleansed from the city earlier by the
Saddam Hussein regime. Kurd leaders want Kirkuk to
be a part of Kurdistan, and within its regional
government.
Kurdish leaders have also insisted on retaining
their force of peshmegras - a traditional
paramilitary force. And they have asked for a
generous slice of the budget keeping in view their
numbers (disputed, but estimated around 3.5 million
in an Iraqi population of 24 million) and the
destruction they suffered under Saddam.
Kurdish leaders indicated earlier this week that
they could get most of what they had asked for. PUK
leader Jalal Talabani and KDP leader Massoud Barzani
said at a press conference that the Shia party is
likely to accept their demand for settlement of
Kirkuk in line with the TAL.
Agreement has also been reached, some leaders said,
on integration of some of the peshmegra into the
army and for the remaining to be placed under
command of the Kurdistan regional government.
The Shia-Kurd deal is likely to include allocation
of 17 percent of the budget for the Kurdish region.
Shia leaders had said earlier that no agreement
could be reached in the face of such Kurdish
demands. Kurd leaders insisted they had not asked
for more than their due - and they seem to have
prevailed.
”We have never been an obstacle in the way of
forming a new government,” Talabani told
journalists. ”We are rebuilding a new state of Iraq,
and this is quite decisive and fateful for Kurds. We
have only asked for the implementation of the
decisions of the Iraqi opposition conferences in
London and Salahaddin (near Arbil in Kurdistan) and
the TAL.”
The last round of negotiations was held in Baghdad
March 16, which was the 17th anniversary of the
gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabjah. More than
5,000 people were killed in that gas attack, and
Kurds made a strong emotional plea for their rights
during the round of talks on that anniversary day.
Kurd and Shia leaders have already reached agreement
over distribution of top positions in government.
The post of prime minister is expected to go to
Ibrahim al-Jaffari from the UIA while Talabani takes
the mostly ceremonial post of president.
Speakership of the assembly is likely to offered to
leading Sunni representative Ghazi al-Yawar whose
slate won five seats. Most Sunnis had boycotted the
elections.
”Certainly there would be a Sunni participation in
the future government and in writing the
constitution,” Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the
powerful Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq told the Sabah Arab daily published in
Baghdad.
But despite the apparent gains many Kurds remain
doubtful how far the Shia majority will keep its
pledges to the Kurds.
”The prevalent mentality among the Shia parties does
not want to recognise Kurd rights,” former judge Dr
Mohammed Omar Mawloud, 53, told IPS. ”Arab religious
and nationalist views have a great influence on UIA
candidates not to accede to the demands of Kurds.”
Talks were continuing this week, with the inclusion
also of Sunnis and representatives from the list of
interim prime minister Ilyad Allawi.
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