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BAGHDAD -- Sunni
Arab and Kurdish politicians yesterday turned up the
heat on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to abandon
his bid for a new term, while leaders of Iraq's
Shi'ite majority struggled to paper over growing
internal divisions.
Despite the squabbling, there were reports the new
parliament would be called into session for the
first time as early as the end of the week, starting
the clock on a 60-day period during which it would
have to elect a president and approve a prime
minister and Cabinet.
The struggle to form a broad-based governing
coalition acceptable to all the main groups in the
country has been hampered by sectarian violence,
which killed at least five persons yesterday. Three
men died in a gunfight at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad
and two relatives of a top Sunni cleric were slain
in a drive-by shooting.
Sunnis accused death squads allied to the interim
government, but the Shi'ite-dominated Interior
Ministry denied the charges.
During a meeting Saturday, the chief of the U.S.
military's Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, urged
Iraqi leaders to resolve the differences stalling
the formation of a unity government.
The bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra
last month "exposed a lot of sectarian fissures that
have been apparent for a while, but it was the first
time I've seen it move in a direction that was
unhelpful to the political process," Gen. Abizaid
said afterward.
Under the constitution, the Shi'ites' United Iraqi
Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, has the
first crack at forming a government and chose Mr.
al-Jaafari as its nominee for prime minister.
But the bloc has too few seats to act alone. And it
is facing a drive by Sunni, Kurdish and some secular
parties that want Mr. al-Jaafari replaced with a
member of his coalition, Vice President Adil
Abdul-Mahdi.
Mr. Abdul-Mahdi lost in the Shi'ite caucus by one
vote to Mr. al-Jaafari, who had the support of
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. That troubles some Shi'ite
leaders because of Sheik al-Sadr's openly
anti-American positions.
The Sunni Arab minority, meanwhile, blames Mr. al-Jaafari
for allowing Shi'ite militiamen to attack Sunni
mosques and clerics after the Feb. 22 bombing of the
shrine in Samarra. More than 500 people died in the
violence that followed, according to police and
hospital accounts.
Kurds are angry because they think Mr. al-Jaafari is
holding up resolution of their claims to control of
the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
"If al-Jaafari tries to form a government, he will
not get any kind of cooperation," said Mahmoud
Othman, a leading figure in the Kurdish bloc.
President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, was one of
the first to publicly initiate the campaign against
Mr. al-Jaafari last week, calling for a candidate
who could build consensus.
Two lawmakers from Mr. al-Jaafari's Dawa party
hinted Saturday that they got an endorsement for
their leader during a meeting with Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential
Shi'ite cleric.
But a senior al-Sistani aide, speaking on the
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of
the dispute, said yesterday that the spiritual
leader indirectly had suggested that Mr. al-Jaafari
should step aside.
AP
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