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BAGHDAD, Iraq, - Almost three months after
nationwide elections, Iraq's National Assembly voted
overwhelmingly to approve a Shiite-led cabinet
Thursday, creating the first fully and freely
elected government in Iraqi history.
The assembly chamber burst into wild applause after
a show of hands revealed that 180 of the 185
legislators in attendance had voted in support of
the proposed government. A traditional Islamic chant
of praise - "God's blessings be on Muhammad and on
his family" - went up soon afterward.
But the divisions that delayed the government's
formation for so long became apparent almost
immediately after the vote, for which almost a third
of the National Assembly was absent.
The leader of the Shiite political alliance that
dominates the assembly and the cabinet, Abdul Aziz
al-Hakim, delivered a fiery speech that hinted at
purges to come in the government's security forces.
A Sunni assembly member later stood up to accuse the
Shiites of dividing the country, and even said one
member had threatened to gather evidence that would
send him to the gallows. The Sunni Arabs, who
dominated Iraq's government under Saddam Hussein,
largely boycotted the January elections.
"This is not a national government, it is a
government of the winners," said the Sunni member,
Meshaan al-Juburi. "I am here to say that the Sunni
Arab members have been marginalized, and the Sunni
Arab political forces should be aware of that."
Lingering tensions were visible even in the list of
cabinet members, which still remains incomplete.
Ahmad Chalabi, one of the country's most
controversial figures, was named a deputy prime
minister. Five important ministries - defense, oil,
electricity, industry and human rights - were given
to place holders because the assembly's political
factions have not yet agreed on candidates.
Under pressure from the White House as well as
Iraqis, the Shiite and Kurdish leaders agreed to
submit an incomplete list rather than delay the new
government any longer. Two deputy prime minister's
posts have also not been filled. Ibrahim al-Jaafari,
the new prime minister and a Shiite, said he
expected to fill those positions in less than a
week. Despite the gaps, the assembly's vote placed
Dr. Jaafari at the head of a cabinet that will
include 17 Shiites, 8 Kurds, 6 Sunni Arabs, and 1
Christian, with at least six women among them.
Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his
two deputies approved the cabinet list late
Wednesday night, allowing it to proceed to the
assembly vote.
When it assumes power early next week, the new
government will face an extraordinary array of
challenges, from guiding the effort to write a new
constitution to rebuilding Iraq's shattered cities
and fighting an undiminished insurgency.
Dr. Jaafari will also need to assert control over
the provincial governments, which had begun to drift
into chaos in recent weeks as Iraq's post-election
political stalemate continued. Last weekend, Bush
administration officials warned Shiite and Kurdish
leaders that the political vacuum appeared to be
fueling renewed insurgent attacks.
That violence continued on Thursday, as a
high-ranking police official and a government
official were shot to death by gunmen as they drove
to work in Baghdad. On Wednesday, a member of the
National Assembly was assassinated in her Baghdad
home in a sharp reminder of the risks all Iraq's
public servants face.
[On Friday, Reuters reported that Iraqi police and
National Guardsmen in Baghdad were the targets of
three car bombs, and casualties were feared.]
At the head of the new cabinet stand Dr. Jaafari and
his deputies: Mr. Chalabi, a Shiite, and Roz Nori
Shawees, a Kurd. Two additional deputies, allocated
to a Turkmen and a Sunni, will be announced within
the week, aides to Dr. Jaafari said.
Mr. Chalabi, a former exile and a Pentagon favorite
who helped make the case for invading Iraq, is
widely disliked here, particularly among Sunnis,
angered by his campaign to oust former Baath Party
members from the new government.
His new position could help him to carry out that
agenda, particularly with an ally getting the
important Interior Ministry portfolio. Baqer Solagh,
who is also known as Bayan Solagh, is a Shiite who
shares Mr. Chalabi's anti-Baathist program. Many of
Iraq's antiterrorist battalions are under the
authority of the Interior Ministry, and members of
Mr. Solagh's party, the Supreme Committee for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq, have sworn to purge the
former Baathists who are among the top commanders
there.
Mr. Chalabi has also been named as temporary head of
the Oil Ministry until a full-time minister can be
found. That appointment could raise alarms in light
of Mr. Chalabi's conviction in Jordan on charges
that he embezzled $30 million from a Jordanian bank.
Ali Abdul Ameer Allawi, a nephew of Mr. Chalabi's,
holds the powerful post of finance minister.
One notable absence in the cabinet is any
representative from the party of the outgoing prime
minister, Ayad Allawi, which has a sizable presence
with 40 seats in the National Assembly. Dr. Allawi
and his party had demanded four cabinet ministries
and a deputy prime minister's post. When Shiite
leaders balked, Dr. Allawi chose to remain in the
parliamentary opposition. Dr. Allawi was absent from
Thursday's vote, as were 89 other members of Iraq's
275 assembly representatives. Low turnouts are
fairly common, partly because of the difficulty of
travel.
The new cabinet includes several holdovers from Dr.
Allawi's government, including Hoshyar Zebari, a
Kurd, who will stay on as foreign minister; Barham
Saleh, a Kurd who served as Dr. Allawi's deputy,
will be planning minister; Nasreen Barwari, the
Harvard-educated public works minister, will retain
her position; and Sami al-Mudhafar, who was
education minister, will stay on as the now renamed
higher education minister.
Under Iraq's transitional law, any assembly member
who joins the cabinet must resign his or her
assembly seat, which will then be filled by a member
of the same party.
One political figure who may stand to gain from the
new cabinet lineup is Moktada al-Sadr, the
rebellious Shiite cleric who led two armed uprisings
against the American occupation and the interim
Iraqi government last year. Three members of the
cabinet - the health minister, the transportation
minister and the civil society minister - belong to
Mr. Sadr's political movement, which has 23 members
in the assembly. (One will have to resign his
position to join the cabinet.)
One of the Sadr assembly members, Baha al-Araji,
said Thursday that he and other of Mr. Sadr's allies
would use their positions to try to ensure legal
protection for Mr. Sadr, who has been reluctant to
appear in public since last year's uprisings.
Sunni distrust of the new government grew in recent
days after several Sunni nominees for cabinet
positions were rejected by Shiite assembly members,
including Mr. Chalabi, because of their Baathist
Party past.
The defense ministry, for instance, has been
allotted to a Sunni, but the post remains unfilled
because Mr. Chalabi and others have opposed the
Sunnis whose names have been submitted so far.
The dominant Shiite alliance includes a small group
of Sunnis, but three of them withdrew on Wednesday
and Thursday, for reasons that are not yet clear.
"This government is unjust and we reject it
totally," said Alaa Makhi, a spokesman for the Iraqi
Islamic Party, one of the best-known Sunni parties,
which boycotted the January elections. "It does not
suggest credibility on the other side, and it does
not represent a national accord."
Iraq's Sunnis form the bulk of the insurgency, and
giving them a stake in the government is widely seen
as an essential part of reducing the violence here.
Leaders of the Shiite and Kurdish coalitions that
dominate the assembly agreed to grant the Sunnis six
cabinet seats - more than their numbers in the
assembly would warrant - in an effort to create a
national unity government.
Some Kurdish and Shiite leaders, including President
Talabani, have also spoken of extending an amnesty
to members of the insurgency that might draw them
into the political process, though no detailed
proposals have emerged so far.
Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedy, Khalid al-Ansary and Layla
Isitfan contributed reporting from Baghdad for this
article.
www.nytimes.com
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