BAGHDAD, 22 April 2006 — Shiite politicians yesterday nominated Jawad Al-Maliki as prime minister, replacing the incumbent in a bid to clear the way for a long-delayed new government.
Maliki is a top ally of outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, whose nomination had sparked sharp opposition from Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders and caused a months-long deadlock.
With the deal on Maliki, Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties were set to fill the other top posts of government in a Parliament vote expected today, said Humam Hammoudi, the spokesman for the Shiite United Iraq Alliance.
He said the Shiites had a “positive stance” for the Kurdish and Sunni nominees for president and Parliament speaker.
Shiite lawmaker Ridha Jawad Taqi said all sides were agreed on a package deal for the top spots: Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, would remain as president for a second term, with Sunni Arab Tariq Al-Hashemi and Shiite Adil Abdul-Mahdi holding the two vice president spots.
Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, would become Parliament speaker with two deputies — Khalid Al-Attiyah, a Shiite, and Aref Tayfour, a Kurd.
The new prime minister nominee will now face the task of putting together a national unity government to try to stem the sectarian violence that has increased in Iraq during the political chaos.
Once the president is approved by Parliament, he will designate Maliki to form a government within 30 days. Lawmakers must then approve each member of the government by a majority vote.
Maliki — whose real name is Nouri Kamel Al-Maliki but who took the name Jawad while in exile during Saddam Hussein’s rule — appeared to have the acceptance of Kurdish and Sunni leaders who had rejected Jaafari.
Leaders of the seven parties that make up the Shiite alliance agreed on Maliki’s nomination for prime minister in a meeting yesterday evening, Hammoudi said.
Maliki won the nomination with agreement from six of the parties, said Taqi. The seventh party, Fadhila, had presented its own candidate, but only five of seven parties were needed to win a “consensus” agreement on a nominee.
Maliki is a veteran of the Dawa party and a longtime colleague of Jaafari. He fled Iraq in 1980, when Saddam’s regime launched a crackdown on Dawa, a leading Shiite opposition movement. He went first to Iran, then left for Syria along with Jaafari in the mid-1980s after the party split between a pro-Iran faction and those who refused to join the Iranian Army to fight against the Iraqi Army.
He returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, and other parties in the alliance had initially expressed opposition to Maliki because it feared he would be unacceptable to Sunni Arabs.
Maliki was a top official in the commission in charge of purging members of Saddam’s ousted Baath party from the military and government. Sunnis — who made up the backbone of the Baath party — consider the commission a means of squeezing them out of influence in post-Saddam Iraq.
But the Dawa party warned of further problems within the alliance if Maliki were rejected after Dawa leader Jaafari was forced to give up the nomination.
Sunnis appeared willing to accept Maliki, after fiercely opposing a second term for Jaafari, who bowed out Thursday.
“If anyone is nominated except Jaafari, we won’t put any obstacles in his way. He will receive our support,” Adnan Al-Dulaimi, head of the main Sunni Arab coalition in Parliament, told The Associated Press.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, said the Kurdish parties had no opposition to Maliki.
The Shiites are the biggest bloc in Parliament but lack the strength to govern without Sunni and Kurdish partners. As the biggest bloc, the Shiites get first crack at the prime minister’s job.
