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BAGHDAD (AFP) -
Iraq was thrown into deep political crisis after
leaders cancelled a much-awaited parliament session
following their failure to resolve a bitter dispute
over the prime minister.
Four months after the landmark elections for the
first permanent post- Saddam Hussein government,
Iraqi leaders continued to squabble over who would
lead the next cabinet and also hold key posts in the
parliament.
Iraqi Sunni and Kurdish groups have rejected the
choice for prime minister of the country's powerful
Shiite majority, outgoing premier Ibrahim Jaafari,
while in a tit-for-tat political move the Shiites
are opposing Sunni candidates for other posts.
The Sunni and Kurdish minorities accuse Jaafari of
failing to curb the raging sectarian violence that
has left hundreds dead since the bombing of a
revered Shiite shrine in Samarra on February 22.
In turn, the Shiite parties suspect the country's
Sunni parties of having one foot in the political
establishment and the other in the camp of Iraq's
three-year insurgency that has targeted Shiites with
bombings and shootings.
"The political crisis has deepened," Kurdish
lawmaker Mahmoud Othman told AFP.
"The issues are not resolved. There is no agreement
on Jaafari yet and the other problem is that the
Shiite list has opposed the Sunni candidate for the
post of parliament speaker."
The Sunni-led National Concord Front, which has 44
seats in parliament, had proposed the name of Tareq
al-Hashemi, the head of the popular Iraqi Islamic
Party, to be the next parliament speaker.
Political factions had been expected to reach
consensus on Sunday ahead of Monday's parliament
session, but their quarreling led to the
cancellation of the meeting. The 275-member
parliament has met only once since Iraq's December
15 election.
"We decided to postpone for a few days the holding
of the parliament," said MP Bassem Sharif, a member
of the parliament's biggest bloc, the Shiite United
Iraqi Alliance, which has 128 seats.
The decision was taken "to give time to all the
parliamentary blocs to finalise their candidates and
reach an agreement on all the parliamentary posts,"
he added.
Baghdad's new ambassador to Washington, Samir
Sumaidaie, told CNN Sunday that a replacement to
Jaafari was likely to be decided upon in the coming
days.
"A number of names have been mentioned. But leading
amongst them is Ali al-Adib, who is from Jaafari's
own party," Sumaidaie said, adding that he "would
stand for the same things that Jaafari stands for."
The deadlock has coincided with a surge in violence
that has raised fears the country is on the edge of
an all out civil war, with its political leaders,
bound by religious and ethnic loyalties, utterly
incapable of forging ahead.
Sunnis believe the Shiite-led government has stocked
the interior ministry with death squads that are
killing members of their minority community, which
enjoyed benefits under the rule of deposed president
Saddam Hussein.
On Monday, Saddam's trial in Baghdad on charges of
crimes against humanity resumed after a five-day
break, but was quickly adjourned until April 19.
The prosecution was granted more time to prove the
authenticity of the deposed Iraqi leader's signature
on execution orders for Shiites from the village of
Dujail who were killed after an assassination
attempt on Saddam's life in 1982.
In violence, insurgents staged fresh attacks killing
two people early Monday.
A civilian was killed in central Baghdad when a
roadside bomb struck a passing Iraqi army patrol,
while another Iraqi was killed in overnight clashes
between insurgents and soldiers.
It was immediately unclear whether the dead man was
a civilian or an insurgent.
On Sunday, at least 31 people were killed in a
string of attacks in Iraq, including bombings and
shootings against a market and two minibuses.
Fifteen Iraqis were kidnapped from two businesses in
Baghdad by armed men, some of them dressed in police
uniforms, and were driven away in police cars,
security sources said.
AFP
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