BAGHDAD, 18 April 2006 — Iraq was thrown into deep political crisis yesterday after leaders canceled a much-awaited Parliament session following their failure to resolve a bitter dispute over the prime minister. At least nine people were killed in violence across the country, while police recovered 17 bullet-riddled bodies in a notorious Baghdad district.
Twelve bodies of men shot to death were found in Baghdad’s notorious Dura neighborhood, while three corpses were recovered in the capital’s Al-Shuala district and two more in the Shiite Kadimiyah neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said. “Of the 12 bodies found in Dura, two were found inside a foreign car, while five next to the car,” the official said.
Despite the continuing political feuding, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari predicted that the new government could be in place by the end of the month. “I hope by the end of April, to be very realistic with you,” Zebari told the BBC.
“We understand the impatience everybody is feeling, at home and abroad, among supporters of the new Iraq and we fully realize that time is of the essence.” The country is still without a new government four months after landmark elections for the first full-term post-Saddam Hussein Parliament, as Iraqi leaders squabble over the premiership and other key posts.
Sunni and Kurdish groups have rejected the choice for prime minister of the powerful Shiite majority, outgoing Premier Ibrahim Jaafari, while the Shiites are opposing Sunni candidates for other posts. The Sunni and Kurdish minorities accuse Jaafari of failing to curb sectarian violence that has left hundreds dead since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 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 the 275-member Parliament, had proposed 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 yesterday’s Parliament session, but the meeting was canceled. The 275-member Parliament has met only once since Iraq’s Dec. 15 election.
“We decided to postpone for a few days the holding of the Parliament,” said MP Bassem Sharif, a member of 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 finalize their candidates and reach an agreement on all the parliamentary posts.”
