International   

Jawad Maliki endorsed as Iraq's Prime Minister

Atul Aneja

Sunni groups welcome nomination; Talabani wins second term

DUBAI: After months of wrangling, Iraq is poised to have a national unity government headed by Shia leader Jawad Al Maliki.

Parliament convened on Saturday and elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani President for a second term. Mr. Talabani then asked Mr. Maliki to form the next government.

"I would like to inform the brothers and sisters that we decided unanimously to endorse our dear brother... to head the Cabinet," he said.

Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab was elected Speaker, while posts of two Deputy Speakers went to Khalid al-Attiyah, a Shia, and Aref Tayfour, a Kurd.

Shia leader Abdel Adel Mehdi and Tariq Al Hashemi, a Sunni were slated to become Vice-Presidents.

In its meeting on Friday, six out of the seven constituents of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), Iraq's main Shia grouping agreed on Mr. Maliki's nomination. The representative of Fadilah party, led by Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr said that despite reservations, his group would not oppose Mr. Maliki's candidature.

Mr. Maliki has been a close ally of Ibrahim Al Jaafari who had been UIA's first choice for Prime Minister. Mr. Jaafari decided to step down after Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish groups opposed his name. The Americans had also declared their opposition to the candidature of Mr. Jaafari, who has had a long association with Iran.

Mr. Maliki also belongs to the Daawa party and is its deputy leader. However, unlike Mr. Jaafari who had spent several years in exile in Iran, Mr. Maliki had spent most of his time outside Iraq in Syria. This was in the eighties when the Iran-Iraq war had begun and he had to flee the country because the Ba'athist regime had threatened Daawa party leaders with death.

Analysts point out that Mr. Maliki's relatively loose ties with Iran were a factor in his nomination. In comparison, Ali Al-Adeeb, another possible candidate, belonged to a family of Iranian origin.

Mr. Maliki, since his return from exile, has been an important member of the "de-Ba'athification" committee that was involved in purging Ba'ath party loyalists of the former President, Saddam Hussein. He also served on the panel that drafted the constitution, and had been appointed as Deputy Speaker of the Interim National Assembly.

Mr. Maliki's nomination has not faced any opposition from Sunni groups, who are slated for a prominent role in the new composite government. "We welcome the choice of Maliki and believe that we can now form a national unity government in Iraq which will be non-sectarian," Zhafer al-Ani of the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front was quoted as saying. Observers point out that while nominating Mr. Maliki, the Shias have dropped their objections to Mr. Mashhadani, a known Sunni hardliner, who has been appointed Speaker.

Kurdish leaders also did not object to Mr. Maliki's nomination. Mr. Maliki's next challenge would be to appoint officials for the powerful oil, interior, defence and finance ministries.

11 bodies found

AP reports:

Suspected militants on Saturday set off two bombs in a public market in northern Iraq, the second one timed to hit emergency crews arriving at the scene, and the blasts killed at least two Iraqis and wounded 17, police said.

The bodies of 10 Iraqis who apparently were tortured and killed in captivity also were found in other areas of Iraq, police said. In the market attack, the fist bomb exploded in the middle Muqdadiyah, a town about 90 km north of Baghdad, causing a large fire, police said.

When fire engines arrived, the second bomb went off, killing a firefighter and a civilian, and wounding 17 civilians, police said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Jawad Maliki endorsed as Iraq's Prime Minister
China triggered "global job boom"
LTTE refuses to meet envoy
Vandalism at a landmark basilica
Bringing back the magic of Iranian carpet-weaving
Quake wipes out Russian villages; relief sent
Evidence of 9000-year-old dentistry
Low turnout in Haiti
View India as an `economic opportunity'
Protests swelling on the streets of Nepal

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu