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New Iraqi unity coalition imperils
Shiites' Prime Minister pick
19.2.2006
By Nelson Hernandez,
Feb 19
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BAGHDAD, Feb. 18
-- A handful of Iraqi political parties have met in
recent days to discuss a government that would unite
the country's disparate ethnic and sectarian groups,
a step that could result in an attempt to defeat the
ruling Shiite coalition's nominee for prime
minister.
The choice of incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim
Jafari, last week to serve a four-year term in
Iraq's most powerful office appeared to be a fait
accompli a few days ago. Jafari had the backing of
the United Iraqi Alliance, the coalition of Shiite
religious parties that won the largest share of
seats in parliamentary elections in December and
that was expected to have enough votes to put its
candidate in office.
But since the Shiites voted to choose Jafari,
representatives from Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular
parties that include multiple factions said they had
met to discuss a broad-based coalition that could
potentially overpower the Shiite candidate.
The politicians, as well as Western officials, said
in interviews that the race for prime minister was
far from over.
"It is too early to say who will be the president or
the prime minister or anything else," said Ibrahim
Janabi, a member of the secular National Iraqi List.
"I think this will take time."
"We are exploring all possibilities," said Barham
Saleh, a leader of the Kurdish alliance of parties,
in a telephone interview just before he headed back
into a meeting with other parties on Saturday.
The politicians received another reminder Saturday
of how important the outcome is. A roadside bomb
killed an American soldier on patrol in Baghdad,
U.S. military authorities said in a statement, and
at least 11 Iraqis were killed in other shootings
and bombings, according to wire reports. In
addition, two Macedonian contractors were reported
kidnapped as they drove along a road in southern
Iraq on Thursday.
Jafari, who has been called ineffectual since he
took over a transitional government in May, faced
challenges almost immediately following his
nomination to head the country's first full-term
government since the ouster of President Saddam
Hussein nearly three years ago.
Sunni Arab and secular parties -- never great
friends of Jafari -- had been expected to object,
but then the Shiites' powerful allies in the
Kurdistan Coalition began to express discontent.
The Kurds have clashed with Jafari over control of
the oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk, which Kurdish
leaders contend should be a part of their largely
autonomous northern region. In recent days, they
have demanded that secular parties be given a role
in the new government.
This is opposed by Moqtada Sadr, the popular,
radical Shiite cleric who was largely responsible
for engineering Jafari's victory.
In a rare interview Saturday night on al-Jazeera
television, Sadr repeated his long-standing demand
that U.S. and allied troops withdraw from Iraqi
soil, and he said he opposed the breakup of the
country along ethnic and sectarian lines. He did not
appear to be willing to assent to the Kurds' demands
-- either for Kirkuk or their own independent
region.
"The problem with Kirkuk is the presence of oil in
it," he said. "It should be in the ownership of all
Iraqis. No one has the right to demand Kirkuk."
U.S. officials, meanwhile, have said they favor a
government that would bring all of Iraq's ethnic and
secular groups together under competent ministers,
regardless of who leads it.
"The U.S. has worked with Jafari for some time. He's
not an enemy of the United States," a Western
diplomat said.
But he added that "the whole power balance has
changed."
Among the changes, the diplomat noted, is the
diminished power of the Shiite alliance since
elections in January 2005. Sunni Arabs, who largely
boycotted those elections, made a strong showing in
the December vote.
At least two major roadblocks stand in the way of
assembling a coalition that could produce enough
votes to challenge Jafari.
The first is the old antipathy between the Sunni
Arabs and the Kurds, who bitterly remember the
oppression suffered under Hussein's Sunni-dominated
dictatorship.
The second is that any coalition capable of amassing
the two-thirds majority necessary to have a viable
candidate for prime minister would need to include
at least some Shiite parties.
Saleh Mutlak, head of the Iraqi National Dialogue
Front, a Sunni Arab group, said he and others were
attempting to woo the Fadhila Party, a smaller party
within the United Iraqi Alliance, and other
independent members of the Shiite coalition.
"I don't think that we should make it as a fact that
the prime minister should be Shiite," Mutlak said.
"We are thinking of bringing somebody who has really
nationalist, Iraqi tendencies," such as Ayad Allawi,
a secular Shiite who earned a reputation for
toughness as Jafari's predecessor.
The one danger, Mutlak acknowledged, is that the
Shiite parties would refuse to accept political
defeat and would mobilize their militias for civil
war. Sadr, for instance, has a large militia that
waged two sustained uprisings against U.S. and Iraqi
forces when Allawi was interim prime minister
"This time I think we have to take the risk and be
brave enough to face the situation," Mutlak said.
"Unless we do it, Iraq is going to die."
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