BAGHDAD, 17 April 2006 — A scheduled session of Iraq’s Parliament for today was postponed by the acting speaker yesterday, further delaying the formation of a government already held up by four months of wrangling by political groups.
Adnan Pachachi made the decision after Iraq’s Shiite alliance proposed a new nominee for prime minister but said it opposed the main Sunni Arab grouping’s candidate for parliamentary speaker, raising a possible new crisis.
After four months of resisting Kurdish and Sunni opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari as its nominee for the top government job, the Alliance put forward Dawa party leader Ali Al-Adeeb, officials in the Shiite bloc said.
Although the alliance has not officially withdrawn Jaafari’s name, the premiership move could end the months of political paralysis that Washington has blamed for fueling increased sectarian violence between Sunnis and the majority Shiites.
But Iraqi leaders could be headed for a new impasse over Tareq Al-Hashemi, whom the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front has nominated as speaker of Parliament.
Today’s parliamentary session, which Pachachi delayed for a “few days,” had raised hopes politicians would bury differences and choose a national unity government, widely seen as the best chance of averting a sectarian civil war.
“The alliance has floated Ali Al-Adeeb as its candidate for prime minister. But if the alliance does not drop its opposition to Hashemi as Parliament speaker the Parliament session will be delayed,” said an alliance official, declining to be named.
Adeeb is not well known in Iraq but political sources said the Alliance opted for him because, unlike other candidates, he was not considered sectarian.
New violence erupted in Iraq, showing Iraqi leaders were still unable to curb violence after national elections in December they promised would deliver stability. A suicide bomber in a car killed at least 11 people and wounded 23 near a market in the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, a police official said.
Near Baquba, north of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Iraqis, killing at least five people and wounding four, police said. In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed seven men working for the Iraqi police department. A car bomb exploded near a mosque in Baghdad, killing four people and wounding seven.
