(It's a great country.Chalabi is In! Allawi is Out! All is forgiven..especially in the mass media!*, the White House and on SI)
April 28, 2005
Iraq's Assembly Overwhelmingly Approves New Government
By ROBERT F. WORTH
and TERENCE NEILAN
AGHDAD, Iraq, April 28 - Against a background of applause and praise, Iraq's National Assembly overwhelmingly approved a list of cabinet officials today, bringing a multiethnic government into power.
Twenty-seven ministers and five acting officials gained approval from 180 members of the 185 who were present in the 275-member Parliament, ending a three-month political stalemate that has appeared to be fueling violence.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari presented the cabinet, which includes members of the main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. Most of the positions went to Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population. Six women will share the administration of seven ministries.
Dr. Jaafari, a Shiite, will be acting defense minister, a position that was intended to go to a Sunni Arab. Disputes remain over two deputy prime minister positions and the defense, oil, electricity, industry and human rights ministries.
*The acting oil minister will be Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite once close to the Pentagon. He will also be one of four deputy prime ministers.The Interior Ministry, a key security position, went to a Shiite, Bayan Jabbor.
A Kurdish official and former vice president, Rowsch Nouri Shaways, will be another deputy prime minister and acting electricity minister.
Parliament's approval is a historic moment for Iraq's Shiites, who were brutally suppressed by Saddam Hussein's government.
It also signifies a personal triumph for Dr. Jaafari, who was named prime minister on April 7 but has since faced an effort by some members of the National Assembly to force him out. Some Kurdish members were deliberately prolonging negotiations, Shiite officials have said, in an effort to run out the clock on Dr. Jaafari, who would have automatically lost his position if a new government were not formed by May 7.
Shiite leaders rejected Dr. Jaafari's initial choices for a Sunni deputy prime minister and defense minister because of suspicions they had ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, which repressed Iraqi's Shiites and Kurds.
The approval came after millions of Iraqis risked their lives to vote in national elections on Jan. 20. Since then, much of the public confidence built up by the elections has been lost, with Iraq's leaders mired in bitter struggles over policy and power-sharing that are likely to persist, in some form, even after the establishment of a new government.
The confirmation also followed closely on the heels of personal appeals to Shiite and Kurdish leaders by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who warned that the continuing political deadlock could be hampering Iraq's ability to respond to a recent increase in insurgent attacks.
An announcement that agreement on the cabinet had been reached - although no names were made available - was made on Wednesday by Dr. Jaafari from the marble steps outside his official residence, in a phalanx of fellow Shiite leaders and security guards in dark suits and sunglasses. President Jalal Talabani was not present, nor were his deputies.
"I recognize that the wait has been long, and that tragedies have taken place, both through violence and through sabotage," Dr. Jaafari said during a 10-minute speech. "We recognize that the level of services is poor, and that we are in a race against time to form a government and establish security."
Speaking in a soft, somber voice, he described the main challenges as security, corruption and rebuilding Iraq's shattered infrastructure.
He also noted that the government must help guide the writing of a new constitution. That document is to be completed in draft form by Aug. 15 - a deadline that some assembly members say may be impossible in light of the delay in forming a cabinet.
Dr. Jaafari's speech, widely broadcast on Arabic satellite television, drew an ambivalent response from some Iraqis, who seemed pleased at the apparent formation of a government after so many delays but baffled by his refusal to provide more details.
Others said they were surprised and concerned about the apparent absence of Mr. Allawi, the departing prime minister, whose party had been expected to take part in the government until just days ago. His party insisted on four cabinet positions and a deputy prime ministerial post, and when members of the Shiite alliance refused to grant that much, Dr. Allawi chose to stay out of government, members of his party have said.
In the past week another problem emerged, as Shiite and Kurdish leaders struggled over which Sunni Arabs to appoint to the cabinet. The Sunnis largely boycotted the January elections, and Shiite and Kurdish leaders agreed early to include six Sunnis in an effort to create a national unity government that might lure some disaffected Sunnis back into politics.
But the lack of Sunni political unity has complicated that effort, said Laith Kubba, an aide to Dr. Jaafari. "Whenever you pick one person, someone else says, 'They don't represent us,' " Dr. Kubba said.
Mr. Chalabi has led a broader effort to oust former Baathists from the government. That set him at odds with Dr. Allawi, who rehired a number of veteran military officers to guide Iraq's fledgling security forces last year.
Robert F. Worth reported from Baghdad for this article, and Terence Neilan contributed reporting from New York.
nytimes.com
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