BAGHDAD, 7 April 2005 — Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was elected Iraq’s new president after two months of wrangling as the new government began to take shape yesterday in a historic parliamentary session watched by Saddam Hussein from his jail cell.
Talabani was elected to the largely ceremonial job of president — with Shiite Adel Abdul Mahdi and interim President Ghazi Al-Yawer, a Sunni, as vice presidents — bringing Iraq a step closer to the country’s first democratically elected government in 50 years.
US President George W. Bush called yesterday’s session a “momentous step forward in Iraq’s transition to democracy.”
“The Iraqi people have shown their commitment to democracy and we, in turn, are committed to Iraq,” the president said in a statement. “We look forward to working with this new government, and we congratulate all Iraqis on this historic day.”
Saddam and 11 of his top aides were given the choice of watching a tape of the session in their jail cells, and all chose to do so, Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said. Saddam watched it by himself, and the others watched it together. “I imagine he was upset,” Amin said. “He must have realized that the era of his government was over, and that there was no way he was returning to office.”
Saddam, captured in December 2003, has been in custody with several of his top henchmen at a US-guarded detention facility, believed to be near the airport.
The so-called presidential council, made up of the president and his two deputies, will be sworn in today. The three are then expected to immediately name the prime minister — likely Shiite leader Ibrahim Al-Jaafari. That clears the way for a Cabinet to be chosen, and allows lawmakers to start drafting a permanent constitution, due Aug. 15.
Key issues — like whether to incorporate the oil rich city of Kirkuk into the autonomous Kurdish region, the role of Islam and who gets the Defense Ministry post — remain. Officials said a new Cabinet might be named as early as Sunday, although they acknowledged the process could require more time. Talabani promised to represent all Iraqis as president and reached out to the country’s different ethnic and religious groups as well to Iraq’s Arab and Islamic neighbors. Al-Hassani, a Sunni, declared: “This is the new Iraq.”
World leaders congratulated Talabani on his post, with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcoming “the commitment of Iraq’s new leadership to working toward national unity through peaceful democratic means”.
As Parliament met, mortar rounds landed in the street across the Tigris River from where the session was being held. A blast left a crater near the Ministry of Agriculture and the Al-Sadeer Hotel and injured at least one Iraqi civilian.
— With input from agencies
