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ARBIL,
Iraq, March 1 (AFP) - 18h08 - Negotiations to
form Iraq's next government intensified Monday as
Shiite Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the frontrunner to become
the next prime minister, and Kurdish leader Massoud
Barzani held talks on forming a coalition.
"We decided to continue the negotiations and create
an Iraqi government of national unity, in which Arab
Sunnis should play a role," Barzani told reporters,
after the two met for several hours in the Kurdistan
mountain retreat of Salahuddin.
The two groups, which have bickered in the past over
Kurdish demand's for wide-ranging autonomy, papered
over their differences as they vowed to create a
national unity government.
"There was a sharing of our points of view and we
have decided to continue the discussions," said
Jaafari, who was due to visit the other main Kurdish
leader, Jalal al-Talabani, in Sulaimaniyah on
Wednesday.
The Shiite leader added that the sides had "resolved
some points" but declined to elaborate. Jaafari, who
headed a five-man delegation, reiterated the joint
commitment to "the participation of all in the
political process and on the necessity of Sunnis
being represented in the next government."
But before joining any coalition, the Kurds are
demanding written pledges that the next government
will follow to the letter the interim constitution,
the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), and work
toward restoring Kirkuk to the Kurds, interim deputy
prime minister Barham Saleh told AFP in Baghdad.
Saleh insisted there was "broad agreement" between
Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and the
Kurdish list, the two biggest vote getters in
January's historic election, but repeated that the
Kurds wanted more than words.
"We would need specific written pledges and
agreements between all the various lists in
parliament as far as their commitment to the
provisions of the TAL," Saleh said.
Jafaari has previously said he wants to repeal the
interim law's provision that a two-thirds majority
in three provinces could veto the constitution,
which is due to be drafted by the next government
and put to a referendum in October.
Kurds -- who control the provinces of Arbil, Dohuk
and Sulaimaniyah -- see the provision as an
iron-clad guarantee that they will be able to guard
their virtual autonomy in northern Iraq and ensure
they are never again persecuted by Iraq's Arab
majority.
Kurdish suspicions towards Iraq's Shiite majority
were stirred last March during the haggling over the
interim law when Shiite members of Iraq's Governing
Council boycotted the signing ceremony because of
the provision.
Reference to the interim law was dropped from UN
Security Council resolution 1546 last June which
recognised the end of the US occupation, due to
Shiite discontent over the near-sovereignty granted
the Kurds in the document.
The TAL also covers the status of the oil rich city
of Kirkuk, which Kurds demand be included in the
Kurdistan region as part of any deal on a future
Iraqi federation.
Kurds regard the city as their Jerusalem and claim
it was stripped away from them by a forced
settlement of Arabs in the region and the expulsion
of thousands of Kurds during the regime of Saddam
Hussein.
Saleh said the Kurds also want written guarantees on
Kirkuk.
"We have presented our views. They need to respond
but we will certainly be looking to some very
specific outlines and measures that need to be taken
to normalise the situation in Kirkuk," he said.
"There are concrete proposals: They will be to allow
all the people displaced to go back, to change the
names (of places) Saddam Hussein has changed,
removing the administrative changes Saddam Hussein
has done."
Saleh also warned that the Kurds wanted Talabani
appointed the country's next president as a gesture
of goodwill by the Arabs and recognition of their
community's clout.
"If he were rejected merely because he is a Kurd,
relegating the Kurds to second class (status), that
is a position we will not accept."
Following a period of political jockeying, Jaafari
of the Shiite Dawa party was picked last week as
candidate of the UIA, which swept 140 of the 275
seats up for grabs in the country's legislative
elections.
The Kurdish Alliance came second with 75 seats and
has emerged as kingmaker in choosing the next
government and recently picked up two more seats
from Kurdish Islamists.
AFP
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