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Iraq's Barzani says leadership dispute at
'Crisis'
11.3.2006
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March 10 (Bloomberg) --
A dispute about who will lead Iraq's next government
has reached a ``crisis point,'' Kurdish leader
Masoud Barzani said.
``Political negotiations have gotten bogged down,
and there's no agreement on forming a government, or
on who will lead it,'' Barzani, who is president of
the northern Kurdistan Regional Government, said in
a statement e-mailed from his office. ``Talks in
Baghdad have reached what can only be described as a
crisis point.''
Further lengthy negotiations could see an ``increase
in violence and loss of trust by the Iraqi people in
their elected representatives,'' Barzani said. At
least 452 civilians have died in violence since the
Feb. 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra,
U.S. Major General Rick Lynch said yesterday. The
assault on the shrine, sacred to Shiite Muslims,
triggered reprisal attacks on Sunni Muslims and
concerns that a civil war was unfolding. |
Massoud Barzani
President of Kurdistan
Region (Iraq) |
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Iraq's Council of Representatives was elected almost
three months ago in a Dec. 15 national ballot and
results were confirmed Feb. 10. Its meeting was
delayed over the second-term candidacy of Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite Muslim who has
been criticized for failing to unite Iraqis.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree today
ordering the country's new parliament to convene on
March 19. Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar and Adel Abdel
Mahdi, the two vice- presidents, both signed the
order, Talabani's office said in a statement
e-mailed from Baghdad.
Talabani previously asked deputies to gather on
March 12, the date dictated by the constitution. He
called for a delay after failing to obtain the
signature of Abdel Mahdi, a member of the Shiite
parliamentary bloc led by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.
Khalilzad's Idea
Once the deputies meet, they will have 15 days to
name a new president and two deputies, who in turn
have 15 days to approve a prime minister.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told
Time magazine that he is trying to persuade Iraq's
political leaders to hold a conference -- possibly
outside Iraq -- to settle their differences.
The heads of Iraq's political parties would gather
after a prime minister is chosen and would ``work
together day and night until we've finished the
job,'' Khalilzad said in the interview posted on
Time's Web site.
Rumsfeld's Message
The military leadership of the U.S. was vocal
yesterday about the importance of ending the
political squabbling. ``We need to move quickly to a
government of national unity,'' Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations
Committee in Washington as the panel reviewed war
spending. `I regard the current problem as more a
problem of governance than security.''
Army General John Abizaid, who runs war operations
in Iraq as head of U.S. Central Command, offered the
same message in his remarks to the lawmakers.
As the largest bloc in the parliament, the
Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance may by law
choose the premier. It named al-Jaafari on Feb. 15
after he beat Abdel Mahdi by a single vote in an
internal ballot. Sunni, Kurdish and secular leaders
last week asked the alliance to withdraw al-Jaafari's
candidacy and find an alternative.
Barzani invited political leaders to the northern
city of Erbil in an attempt to resolve the
``crisis,'' saying ``we need a new start, and to get
everyone talking around one table again.''
www.bloomberg.com
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