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BAGHDAD : The leading candidate to head Iraq's
next government met with Kurdish leaders to bolster
his position.
Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari huddled Tuesday
with officials from Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan
Democratic Party in the northern city of Arbil in a
bid to win their support to lead the next
transitional government.
"There is no deal yet with any party, we are still
in the period of putting forward our proposals and
examining the question of coalitions," Mohammed
Ihsan, who serves as the Kurdish party's human
rights minister, told AFP before the start of talks.
Jaafari, leader of the Dawa religious party, was
picked a week ago as the candidate of the United
Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which took 140 of the 275
seats in the new National Assembly in the January
election.
The Kurdish Alliance came second with 75 seats, and
has emerged as potential kingmaker in choosing the
next government. A smaller Kurdish party recently
joined it with its two seats.
The Kurds want the post of Iraqi president and a
commitment to a federal and secular Iraq as outlined
in the country's transition laws drafted under the
previous US-appointed administration, Ihsan told AFP.
They also want two of the main ministries such as
defence, foreign relations, finance and oil, said
the official, reiterating his bloc's conditions for
supporting any new government.
Kurds will also demand that the multi-ethnic and
oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk be included in the
Kurdistan region as part of any deal on a future
Iraqi federation, he said.
That is the most contentious demand.
Kurds regard the city as their Jerusalem and say it
was stripped away from them by a forced settlement
of Arabs in the region during Saddam Hussein's
regime.
In addition to Kurds and Arabs, the area has an
important Turkmen population that has grievances
against the Kurds.
Interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd,
told AFP in an interview that the Kurdish alliance
was in a "broad agreement" with the UIA that now
"needs to be translated into a meaningful programme
and agreement with some specificity and details."
He said any deal on Kirkuk and other Kurdish demands
would have to be in writing.
He added that the door was still open for talks with
the faction headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi, whose coalition came in third in the
elections winning 40 seats.
Jafaari was also scheduled to hold talks with
leaders of the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan party (PUK),
the other main Kurdish faction headed by Jalal
Talabani, Saleh said.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Monday's suicide
bombing in the town of Hilla, south of the capital,
rose to 115 after another of the wounded died,
medical officials said.
The number of injured also rose to 146 after a
further 17 people were admitted to hospital after
the bombing, the deadliest single attack since the
US-led invasion two years ago.
In other violence nine Iraqis, including civilians
and security-force members, were killed over the
past 24 hours in incidents around Baghdad and the
restive cities of Baquba and Balad to the north and
Ramadi to the west, security sources said.
A US soldier also died Tuesday from injuries
suffered a day earlier in a vehicle accident in near
Baiji, north of the capital, the US military said.
AFP
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