BAGHDAD/ WASHINGTON, 2 June 2004 — Violence erupted as Iraq’s first post-Saddam Hussein era government assumed office yesterday after bitter negotiations between the US led-coalition and the outgoing Governing Council. Fighters launched several deadly attacks to mar the ceremony.
The interim Governing Council was dissolved and the new transitional executive or interim government was put on display in a ceremony at one of Saddam’s former palaces amid sniping that the body did not reflect the will of Iraqis.
Sunni tribal magnate Ghazi Al-Yawar was named president and 33 ministries were parceled out along religious and ethnic lines.
A pair of car bombings killing 14 people and wounding dozens cast a shadow over the day as well as the future of Iraq, which is due to receive full sovereignty on June 30.
Mortars also rained down on the coalition’s headquarters in the capital in a rebel assault that started less than an hour after Yawar’s appointment was made public.
In Washington, President George W. Bush voiced unqualified support for the leaders of the interim government and his national security adviser said they were not “America’s puppets.”
Bush pledged to work with the new prime minister. “All the new prime minister needs to know is that I look forward to a close relationship with him,” Bush said at a Rose Garden news conference.
Rather than quibble about names, Bush and top US officials decided to embrace the interim government, point out that both men and women are on it and stress that for Iraqi president, for instance, the United States did not have its heart set on any one candidate.
“I can tell you firmly and without any contradiction, this is a terrific list, a really good government, and we are very pleased with the names that have emerged,” said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Iyad Allawi, the US-backed former Baathist dissident who was picked as prime minister on Friday, read his official Cabinet lineup at a press conference and hailed what he described as the country’s first step toward democracy.
In the communal carving up of portfolios, Ibrahim Jaffari of the Shiite Dawa party and Roj Nuri Shawis of the Kurdistan Democratic Party were appointed as vice presidents.
Kurds Barham Saleh, a US-backed moderate, was appointed deputy premier for national security and Hoshyar Zebari retained the Foreign Ministry, which he has managed since last September.
Adnan Pachachi explained he declined the presidency after he was accused of being the candidate of the United States.
“It is a lie ... that the Coalition Provisional Authority wanted to impose me as president,” he told reporters.
— Additional input from agencies
