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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nearly three months after
millions of Iraqis defied insurgents and risked
their lives to elect a parliament, the country is
still struggling to form a new government - in large
part because of infighting among Shiite and Kurdish
factions.
Animosity and distrust left over from Saddam
Hussein's brutal regime also are contributing to the
delay in forming a Cabinet - a delay that now is
close to imperiling the country's democratic
progress: If the Cabinet isn't appointed by early
next month, interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
could be forced to step down.
The stalemate also comes at a time of stepped-up
attacks by insurgents and a U.S. official warned the
country was being left with an interim government in
limbo at a time when strong leadership is needed to
combat the violence.
On Saturday, Ayad Allawi, Iraq's outgoing prime
minister, urged the legislators to "safeguard Iraq's
march toward democracy" by ending the standoff.
It is blamed largely on two things: Kurdish factions
that oppose al-Jaafari, a Shiite Arab leader, as
prime minister; and Shiite factions that don't want
ministers selected from Allawi's secular party.
Al-Jaafari's Islamic Dawa Party, a major group in
the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, has close ties
with Iran's religious leaders and with Iraq's most
influential Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Some Kurdish legislators want a more secular prime
minister and one who favors a federal government
that would give strong autonomy to Iraq's Kurdish
north.
In a telephone interview Saturday, Sami al-Askari, a
member of the Shiite alliance, said some Kurds
distrust al-Jaafari so much that they want to delay
the formation of the Cabinet in an effort to unseat
him.
"Some Kurds are holding up al-Jaafari's efforts to
form a government so the deadline will expire and
another prime minister will have to be selected,"
al-Askari said.
Another Shiite official confirmed that, speaking on
condition of anonymity because the negotiations are
ongoing.
However, Fouad Massoum, a senior official in
President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan party, said few Kurds in parliament are
taking that stand. "We don't object to al-Jaafari,
and his removal as Iraq's prime minister would mean
we all fail in forming a government of national
unity," he said in an interview.
Under Iraq's transitional law, al-Jaafari will
automatically lose his position if he does not name
a Cabinet by May 7. Al-Jaafari - who has repeatedly
predicted he will soon announce a new Cabinet but
then failed to do so - was not available for comment
on Saturday.
Allawi, a secular Shiite, is the focus of another
disagreement over the Cabinet.
Many Shiites have long resented him. They accuse
Allawi's outgoing administration of having brought
into his interim government some former members of
Saddam's Baath Party, who had helped carry out
policies that oppressed many Iraqis, especially
Shiites and Kurds.
On Friday, Allawi's Iraqi List alliance, which
controls 40 seats in the National Assembly, accused
Shiites of trying to keep all the party's members
out of the new Cabinet.
Rasim al-Awadi, the party spokesman, said Shiite
legislators have failed to respond to Iraqi List's
request for four to eight seats in the Cabinet. He
accused Shiite lawmakers of jeopardizing Iraq's
democratic transition but said Iraqi List will
continue to support the government, even if it is
excluded from the Cabinet.
Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million
people. The Kurds make up 20 percent, and the Sunni
Arabs are roughly 15 percent to 20 percent.
The Sunnis, who largely stayed away from the Jan. 30
election either in boycott of the vote or for fear
of attacks, won only 17 of the 275 seats in the
National Assembly. The Shiite-dominated alliance won
about 48 percent of the vote and the Kurdish
alliance finished with 26 percent.
Sunnis are widely believed to form the backbone of
the insurgency, and the interim government is trying
to include some Sunni officials to win public
support from the minority and diminish the violence.
But dozens of people have died in the last two weeks
in widespread attacks after a relative lull
following the election. Scores of Iraqi bodies also
were recently pulled from the Tigris River south of
Baghdad.
The U.S. official said Friday that the delay in
forming the new government could be contributing to
the increased violence. He said the optimism the
election generated among Iraqis has "worn off a
bit," giving "the insurgents new hope." He briefed
reporters in Baghdad on condition of anonymity,
because of the sensitivity of the issue.
In April, the parliament elected Hajim al-Hassani as
parliament speaker in a gesture toward the Sunni
Arab community and Kurdish leader Talabani to the
largely ceremonial job of president. Talabani and
his two vice presidents then selected al-Jaafari as
interim prime minister.
If al-Jaafari fails to announce a new Cabinet, the
trio would have to choose another prime minister.
Parliament has until mid-August to draft a permanent
constitution, which must be submitted to a
referendum no later than Oct. 15. If the
constitution is approved, elections for a permanent
government must be held by Dec. 15.
AP
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