BAGHDAD, 8 March 2005 — Outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has declined an offer to join a new coalition government led by the election-winning Shiite bloc, its leaders said yesterday.
“He showed no interest in joining the government and turned down our offer,” said Hussein Shahristani, a senior official of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance.
Another leader of the alliance, which swept 140 of the 275 seats in Parliament in January elections, said Allawi had been offered a role proportionate to the 40 seats won by his list.
“We did not offer him a specific position but more the principle of participation,” said Jawad Al-Maliky of the Dawa party, a religious faction whose leader Ibrahim Jaafari is the Shiites’ candidate for prime minister.
“He told us ‘I will not take part but I will help you in crossing to the opposite river bank’.”
A Western diplomat told AFP that Allawi had been offered one of the two positions as vice president, or a deputy prime minister’s post with special responsibility for defense and the security services.
But a official of his Iraqi National Accord party said the outgoing premier was not prepared to play second fiddle in a new governing coalition.
“He will not accept any post but the premiership in any government he joins,” Hani Idris said. The Shiite alliance said it was finalizing the details of a coalition deal with the main Kurdish list, which came a comfortable second in January’s election with 77 seats.
Parliament is due to hold its first session on March 16.
Idris said the outgoing premier would concentrate on defending secularism when MPs begin work drafting a new constitution, due to be put to a referendum in October.
“We will work toward a balanced and modern constitution,” he said. “The government must stay away from religious issues.”
