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Rice mission to request Jaafari to step down?

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw have arrived in Baghdad in what appears to be a mission to persuade Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to step down and push for the formation of a national unity government. "The fact that we're going out to have these discussions with the Iraqi leadership is a sign of the urgency which we attach to a need for a government of national unity," Ms. Rice told reporters.

Officials from the U.S. and Iraq have said that the formation of national unity government is urgent to stem the spiralling sectarian violence that has been engulfing Iraq. The arrival of the two Foreign Ministers coincides with the call by the leader of a bloc that is part of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Shia grouping that won the maximum number of seats in the Iraqi parliamentary elections.

Kasim Daoud, a senior member of the independent group within the Alliance, was quoted as saying that Mr. Jaafari should step aside. Out of a total of seven, four groups within the UIA are reportedly seeking Mr. Jaafari's replacement.

Analysts, however, have expressed scepticism over the scale of an internal revolt brewing against Mr. Jaafari inside the UIA.

They point out that Mr. Jaafari has received the firm backing of two major groups — his own Daawa party and the powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's supporters.

In internal elections, both these groups polled 56 out of the 64 votes that Mr. Jaafari had got.

As a result, Mr. Jaafari defeated his rival, Adel Abdul-Mahdi of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), another major constituent of the UIA, by a single vote. Observers point out that Kurdish parties — the UIA's allies in the previous government, are this time opposing Mr. Jaafari mainly because he has called for a strong central authority in Iraq.

Autonomy issue

Such a move might infringe on the widespread "autonomy" that the Kurds have been enjoying in northern Iraq. Besides, Mr. Jaafari appears disinclined to see the Kurds exercising de facto control over the Kirkuk oil fields in northern Iraq.

U.S. chopper shot down

AP reports:

Militants blew up a small Shia mosque northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, and the U.S. military said an Apache helicopter that crashed southwest of the capital was believed to have been shot down and the two crew members were presumed dead.

Officials also reported the death of three other American soldiers and the discovery of nearly 40 bodies in several neighbourhoods of the Iraqi capital.

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