|
Despite US Pressure, Iraqi Govt. on Hold
 |
|
Rice told Talabani to complete the government formation “as soon as they could”.
|
BAGHDAD,
April 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Despite
surging attacks and reported pressure from Washington, the formation
of the new Iraqi government remains in the womb of time, more than two
months after elections.
Jawad
Al-Maliki, a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) which
won the lion’s share in the general elections, said Monday, April
25, that the expected announcement of the new line-up had been
delayed, reported Reuters.
“It
was expected to be announced today, but it seems that some details
about naming ministries and ministers prevented that,” Al-Maliki, a
lawmaker who has been involved in the negotiations, said after a
meeting of the interim 275-member National Assembly.
“There
is a meeting today to solve these details and people involved in the
meeting are saying that tomorrow it (the government) will be
announced.”
Politicians
have repeatedly said in recent weeks that they are close to unveiling
a government, only for the announcement to fall through.
Prime
Minister-designate Ibrahim Jaafari, who is a leading member of the
Shiite alliance, in theory has until May 7 to name a cabinet.
Do
It Now
The
new delay coincided with reports about a clear change of attitude on
the side of Washington, which tried since the January polls to appear
as not interfering in the government formation process.
The
Bush administration has pressed Iraqi leaders to end their stalemate
over forming a new government, reported The New York Times on
Monday.
Quoting
a senior State Department official, it said that Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice on Friday, April 22, phoned Iraq's new Kurdish
President Jalal Talabani and urged him to complete the government
“as soon as they could”.
The
American daily described the White House pressure, reported by Iraqi
officials in Baghdad and an American official in Washington, as “a
change in the administration's hands-off approach to Iraqi
politics”.
During
a recent meeting with Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney at the White
House, Adil Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite politician selected as one of the
two vice presidents, was also told that Washington wanted to see a
government formed right away, it said.
Rice
told both Talabani and Mahdi that more than enough time had passed
since the January election, and a government needed to be formed now,
according to the paper.
Allawi
Out
 |
|
Jaafari has, in theory, until May 7 to present his line-up. (Reuters).
|
Iraqi
Shiite leaders declared Sunday, April 24, they would no longer hold
out for a deal with Iyad Allawi, the outgoing prime minister.
Senior
officials have suggested Jaafari has given up on attempts to include
Allawi’s parliamentary bloc in the new cabinet.
“I
don't think they are likely to be included,” Maliki had earlier told
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It
doesn't look like” they will be taking part, said Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd who is expected to remain at his post.
“We
all tried to encourage them to participate” but in vain, he added.
Allawi
wants five cabinet posts, including a deputy premiership.
“These
are our demands and, if they are not satisfied, we cannot participate
in the government,” said Rasem Awady, the head of Allawi's
negotiating team.
Allawi's
Iraqiya list won just 40 of the 275 seats in parliament.
Iraqi
Sunnis largely boycotted the polls, prompting legal and political
observers – both Arab and foreign – to deem the political process,
held under occupation, incomplete, if not invalid.
Jaafari
has been striving to include as many factions as possible in his new
government.
Last-minute
talks involved the level of participation by members of the
Sunni-based National Front, which had demanded at least seven
ministerial posts along with a post of deputy premier.
Surge
in Attacks
The
wrangling over the political process is coinciding with a spiraling
chaotic insecurity.
Attacks
are surging after a period of relative calm that followed the January
elections.
Bombings
Sunday targeted a police academy in Tikrit, northern Iraq, killing at
least 17 and wounding 35 others.
And
at least 16 people died and 50 were wounded in two explosions late
Sunday by an ice cream parlor close to the Shiite Al-Beit mosque in
the northern Shula district, a working class neighborhood, police
said.
 |
|
Attacks are surging in Iraq. (Reuters)
|
A
day earlier, a car bomb attack on an Iraqi National Guard convoy
killed nine troops.
The
bomb struck the convoy at Abu Ghraib, home to the US-run notorious
prison, some 12 miles west of Baghdad, and also wounded 20 Guardsmen.
Another
attack on a US patrol in western Baghdad Saturday killed two
civilians.
The
US military said three American soldiers and seven Iraqi civilians
were also wounded.
A
US vehicle and two Iraqi vehicles were destroyed, and the blast
knocked down power lines.
|
