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BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- Iraq's governing Shi'ite Alliance asked President
Jalal Talabani on Tuesday to postpone the opening of
parliament "for a few days" to give it more time to
break a deadlock over the formation of a grand
coalition.
But officials said Sunday's first parliament session
since an election in December would almost certainly
go ahead, if only to meet a constitutional deadline.
It is possible no business will be conducted,
however, leaving a political impasse just as
sectarian bloodshed has raised fears the country
could break up.
The dominant Shi'ite bloc is resisting pressure from
Sunnis and Kurds to drop Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
as its candidate to return to the post he has held
for a year.
In one of his most dismal assessments of the
situation, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said
Washington had "opened Pandora's box" by invading
Iraq in 2003 and the "potential is there" for the
conflict to descend into full-blown civil war.
Gunmen killed three people in the office of young
radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr in violence
on Tuesday, while three mortar bombs hit the Baghdad
headquarters of the Sunni Arab National Dialogue
Front. No casualties were reported.
Talabani, a Kurd, announced on Monday he would
convene parliament on Sunday, barely meeting a
constitutional deadline for him to summon lawmakers
following the final results of the parliamentary
election being certified.
LEADERSHIP ROW
Nearly three months after the election, Iraq's
political leaders are still fighting over who should
be prime minister, under pressure from Khalilzad to
produce a broad coalition.
The Shi'ite Alliance, just short of a majority in
the new parliament, is facing mounting pressure from
would-be partners to ditch Jaafari, whom critics say
has failed to bring security or prosperity after a
year as interim premier.
Hundreds were killed in the past two weeks alone
after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in the largely
Sunni city of Samarra.
Jaafari, as ever, appeared untroubled on Tuesday.
The soft-spoken Islamist doctor told an hour-long
media briefing that touched only briefly on Iraq's
political crisis that the issue was being discussed
in a "civilised and democratic way".
The political stalemate has complicated efforts to
form a national unity government of Shi'ites, Sunnis
and Kurds that Washington is promoting as the best
hope of stabilising Iraq and allowing it to begin
pulling out its troops.
"We have decided to ask Talabani to postpone
parliament's first session for a few days. We are
discussing the demands from the other groups to
change our nomination," said Rida Jawad al-Takki, a
senior member of SCIRI, the biggest Shi'ite
political party and a mainstay of the Alliance.
The outgoing speaker said a delay in the session was
all but impossible because Iraq's supreme legal
authority has ruled that March 12 is the
constitutional deadline for a first session of
parliament, when a new speaker must be elected.
A senior political source, not from the Alliance,
said one solution being considered was to convene
but take no decision on a new speaker and not
formally adjourn the sitting.
That would mean that after Sunday parliament could
resume its "first" session at any time in the coming
weeks, he said.
Reuters
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