BAGHDAD, 26 April 2005 — The new Iraqi Cabinet was delayed again though Sunni politicians dropped their demand yesterday to include former members of Saddam Hussein’s party in a bid to get more ministries.
Iraq’s Sunni minority is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency and many here blame the months-long impasse in forming a new government for a resurgence in violence.
As leaders of Iraq’s main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factors continued their backroom wheeling and dealing, Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari again put off his long-promised Cabinet announcement.
The National Dialogue Council, a coalition of 10 different Sunni factions, initially requested 16 Cabinet seats. It submitted a list of candidates Sunday that includes former members of Saddam’s Baath party, said Jawad Al-Maliki, a senior member of Jaafari’s United Iraqi Alliance. But when that was rejected, they dropped the demand, he told reporters.
Alliance members, who control 148 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, refuse to give any top posts to members of the party that carried out Saddam’s brutal suppression of the majority Shiites and Kurds.
The issue is just one of many obstacles that have bogged down negotiations since Iraqis voted in Jan. 30 parliamentary elections. Most Sunnis stayed away from the vote, either in boycott or out of fear of attacks at the polls.
Jaafari has also had to balance demands by his predecessor, Iyad Allawi, for at least four ministries for his party, including a senior government post, and a deputy premiership. Much of the discussion has focused on the key Defense Ministry, which all agree should go to a Sunni, but which Allawi has argued should go to his Iraqi List party.
On Sunday, alliance lawmakers said Jaafari had decided to abandon attempts to include Allawi’s party and offer Sunni representatives two more Cabinet seats, for a total of six.
Members of the Iraqi List, which controls 40 parliamentary seats, said the party had not been officially informed of the development. “I don’t see how it can be a national unity government without our participation,” Iraqi List legislator Hussein Sadr told reporters yesterday.
If Allawi’s party is excluded, a spokesman for the Sunni coalition, Khalaf Al-Aryan, said it would insist on at least seven ministries plus a deputy premiership. “If Allawi does take part, we’ll negotiate and take less,” he said.
Further complicating negotiations, a rival Sunni coalition entered the fray yesterday, saying it too should have a place in the Cabinet. The three-member Council of Arab and Sunni Negotiators and the National Dialogue Council both include groups that boycotted the elections and could help open talks with insurgents.
— With input from agencies.
