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BAGHDAD, March 24 (AFP) - 14h30 - Negotiations
on forming the next Iraqi government dragged on
Thursday, with Kurdish negotiators absent and the
Shiite side questioning whether a government would
be unveiled this weekend even if the parliament
convenes.
"We are waiting for the Kurdish negotiators to come
back from Nohruz (the Kurdish new year)," said
Haidar Mussawi, a spokesman for Ahmed al-Chalabi, a
member of the Iraqi National Congress and the
election-winning Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
"Even if the parliament convenes Saturday or Sunday,
it may take another week to have a government,"
Mussawi said.
A Kurdish source said the delay stemmed in part from
efforts to convince outgoing prime minister Iyad
Allawi's list to join the government.
"They are negotiating on the Allawi list's
participation. It might take a few more days," the
Kurdish source said.
The news came almost two months after the historic
January 30 election that saw millions of Iraqis risk
bombs and bullets to vote.
Kurdish negotiator and foreign minister Hoshyar al-Zebari
was in Algiers to attend an Arab summit and only two
Kurdish leaders, Fuad Massum and Barham Saleh, were
in Baghdad, Shiite negotiator Maryam al-Rayes told
AFP.
All the Kurdish negotiators were expected back on
Thursday, the Kurdish source said.
Rayes said the UIA still wanted to convene the
national assembly on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Shiite spiritual leader Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, signalled his growing
impatience with the elected parliament's failure to
assemble a government and urged them to hurry up the
process.
The Kurds, fearful of falling under the thumb of
Arab rule, have fought for iron-clad guarantees that
the Shiite majority will respect their hard-won
freedom in the north.
The Kurds and Shiites have also struggled to bring
Iraq's alienated Sunni minority, which ruled Iraq
for most of its history, into the government.
Under a complicated system of checks and balances,
the 275-member parliament requires a two-thirds
majority to elect the president and his two
deputies.
They in turn nominate the prime minister who
presents a cabinet to the parliament for a majority
vote.
AFP
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