BAGHDAD, 28 March 2005 — Iraqi politicians yesterday fought over the Oil Ministry and the role of Islam in the next government, while an Al-Qaeda website posted a video of the purported execution of an Iraqi colonel. Iraq’s Parliament, due to meet tomorrow, seemed far from a deal on a coalition government, as the country’s ethnic and religious factions bickered two months after Jan. 30 election.
Parliament, which held its inaugural session on March 16, will try to put to a vote the crucial three-man presidency council that will appoint the prime minister even if political parties cannot agree on the rest of the government, Shiite negotiators said.
The Shiite candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, sought to put an optimistic spin on the talks, despite the apparent deadlock on Cabinet posts. “I think we are pretty much done and we will see a new government in the next few days,” Jaafari told Iraqi state television.
Members of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance have made similar predictions in the past only to see their projections fall flat. The election-winning Kurds and Shiites have been locked in talks on forming a coalition government since late February. Their task has been made more complicated by both sides’ desire to include Sunnis, who largely boycotted elections, and the Kurds’ wish to temper Islamist influence in the Shiite bloc by including members of the secular alliance of outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Allawi has said clerics must stay out of politics if he is to join a new governing coalition, a top aide of the secular politician told AFP yesterday. Allawi put his demands in a letter delivered more than 10 days ago to the Shiite and Kurdish political blocs, an official of the prime minister’s Iraqi National Accord party said.
The Kurds and Shiites are also feuding over the post of oil minister, which both sides see as a jewel in the government’s crown. “Kurdish negotiators requested the oil minister be appointed by them and we think the oil is important and it should be part of the (United Iraqi Alliance) coalition,” said UIA member Saad Jawad. As the sides haggled, the insurgency fired off a new salvo in its propaganda war.
