BAGHDAD, 24 February 2005 — Supporters of Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi met yesterday to plot their next move in what looks like an uphill battle to keep their man in his job at the helm of the country’s new government. Allawi is one of two men in the frame for the post, the other being religious Shiite leader Ibrahim Al-Jaafari.
Jaafari is the clear front-runner, having won the backing on Tuesday of Iraq’s most powerful political alliance. But Allawi, a secular Shiite who has ruled the country for the past eight months, has refused to back down. At stake is the chance to spearhead Iraq’s first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.
Asked at a news conference if he had been promised a ministerial post in the new government, Allawi said: “This is what I hear in the press but there is nothing official. (Those who) won the elections are still discussing the main nominees for the posts - the five posts including the presidency, his deputies and the prime minister.” The Shiite alliance backing Jaafari won 48 percent of the vote in last month’s election, giving it 140 seats and a slim overall majority in the new 275-seat Parliament. But it does not have the two-thirds majority it needs to secure Jaafari’s appointment, and will have to cut deals with other parties and coalitions to get its way.
It could appeal to the Kurds, who finished second in the election and will have 75 seats. Alternatively, the Kurds might back Allawi, whose list won 14 percent and will have 40 seats. There is still the possibility that the Shiite alliance, which has a religious core but counts secular Shiites, Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen among its members, will break up. The alliance behind Jaafari is blessed by Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who has said Iraq’s new constitution must respect the country’s Islamic identity. Jaafari has said he would like Islam to be a main source of law.
US and Iraqi forces continued their offensive to flush insurgents out of Anbar, Iraq’s vast western province which has been one of the most violent areas in the country. Marines launched a predawn raid on the insurgent stronghold of Haqlaniya, 240 km west of Baghdad, as part of the offensive, killing three Iraqis who failed to stop their car when flagged down by police.
A column of tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the town and was immediately ambushed. Marines responded with heavy machine-gun fire and tank rounds. Later in the day, they dropped two bombs on an island in the Euphrates River where they believed insurgents were hiding.
There was an explosion in Anbar’s provincial capital Ramadi, although there were no reports of casualties, and, elsewhere in Iraq, the daily litany of killings continued. A car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul, killing two passersby and wounding 14.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqi students demonstrated yesterday to protest a government decision to extend the weekend to include Saturday, denouncing the scheme as a “Zionist plot”. Irate high school students marched through Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, denouncing Allawi’s decision to extend the weekend from the traditional Islamic holy day of Friday to include Saturday. “We don’t want Saturday as it is a Jewish holiday,” the crowd chanted. “The decision to include Saturday as a rest day is the start of Zionist plans in Iraq,” read a banner at the demonstration, organized by the Baquba Students’ Union.
