BAGHDAD, 27 April 2005 — Iraq’s prime minister-designate yesterday proposed appointing a 36-member Cabinet — including three deputy premiers from Iraq’s main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions — in an attempt to end a stalemate that has dragged on for too long.
But haggling continued over who would be appointed to some of the posts.
Many here believe the monthslong impasse over the makeup of a new government has emboldened insurgents, who have launched deadly attacks on US and Iraqi security forces. Ibrahim Jaafari discussed his proposal yesterday with President Jalal Talabani, said the premier’s spokesman, Abdul Razak Al-Kadhi.
Talabani’s three-member presidential council must sign off on the list before it is submitted to the 275-member National Assembly for a vote. Talabani has already indicated he would not exercise his veto and lawmakers said a vote could take place as soon as today.
However, such predictions have repeatedly proved false. Late yesterday, Jaafari went back for further talks with Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and other members of his United Iraqi Alliance concerning the selection of Sunni candidates, lawmakers said.
Jaafari, who must form a government by May 7 or lose his post, has promised a Cabinet drawing in all of the country’s main ethnic and religious groups. Under his proposal, Iraq’s majority Shiites would get 17 ministries, according to Hadi Al-Ameri and Ali Al-Adib, two lawmakers from Jaafari’s alliance, which controls 148 seats in Parliament.
Eight ministries would go to the alliance’s Kurdish allies, six to Sunnis and one to a Christian, the lawmakers said.
Fouad Massoum, a senior member of Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, confirmed most of the breakdown, but was not aware that a ministry would go to a Christian faction.
Hoping to end months of haggling, Jaafari has also decided to appoint three deputy prime ministers, one each from the country’s main ethnic and religious groups, lawmakers said.
Conspicuously absent from the proposed Cabinet were members of outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi List party, who had asked for at least four ministries, including a senior post, and a deputy premiership. Allawi’s Iraqi List controls 40 seats in the National Assembly.
Shiite lawmakers said Sunday they had given up trying to balance Allawi’s demands with those of Sunni factions, who could offer a link to begin negotiations with Sunni militants, believed to be driving the insurgency.
Many Shiites have long resented the secular Allawi, accusing his outgoing administration of including in the government and security forces former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, which brutally oppressed the majority Shiites and Kurds.
Insurgents fired five mortars yesterday at a US base in Samarra, 95 kilometers north of Baghdad, said US Maj. Richard Goldenberg. US forces did not return fire and suffered no casualties, he said. However, an errant round landed outside the base and wounded an Iraqi civilian, police Lt. Qasim Muhammed said.
The US military said a soldier was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb that struck his convoy near Haswah, 35 kilometers west of Baghdad.
— With input from agencies
