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Talabani gets the nod
Iraq's National Assembly
on Tuesday named Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as
president, ending a deadlock on forming a new
government since elections on January 30.
The widely-expected appointment, but long
in the making, cements a power-sharing agreement
between the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won
the most seats in the elections, and the
second-placed Kurdish Alliance.
Shi'ite
interim Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and
former Sunni vice president Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar
were chosen as Talabani's two deputies.
This follows the appointment on Sunday of
Hajim al-Hasani, a US-educated Sunni economist who
currently holds office as minister of industry, as
Speaker of parliament.
"This is the new
Iraq where no sect or minority controls the whole
country and where all the people are unified,"
Hasani said in a live broadcast of the session
aired by al-Jazeera television.
The
presidential council will now have two weeks to
name a replacement for interim Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party
says the post will be filled by Ibrahim
al-Jaafari, the UIA's candidate. Agence France-
Presse reported that the announcement may be made
as soon as Thursday.
Speaking in
different voices
Meanwhile, Kathleen
Ridolfo of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports
that the appointment of Hasani as speaker of the
National Assembly followed several days of
internal friction and disagreements with the
Shi'ite-led UIA. Such friction suggests a growing
fissure between mainstream Sunnis and the Muslim
Scholars Association, a group that claims to
represent some 3,000 mosques in Iraq.
Shi'ite leaders had supported the first
Sunni nominee, interim President Ghazi Ajil
al-Yawir. But Yawir declined to accept the
nomination, which he considered a demotion from
his current position. Yawir's decision left the 17
Sunni parliamentarians scrambling to find a
nominee who was acceptable not only to them, but
also to the Shi'ite and Kurdish lists that
together constitute a majority in the parliament.
The events that followed demonstrated the
diversity within the Sunni constituency, as their
representatives struggled to find a compromise
candidate who would represent both secular and
Islamist Sunnis, as well as all of Iraq's
citizenry.
When at first you don't
succeed ...
After the Sunnis failed to
nominate a new Speaker at the March 29 session,
Reconciliation and Liberation Bloc head Mish'an
al-Juburi proclaimed himself the new Sunni nominee
on April 1. Veteran Sunni politician Adnan
Pachachi confirmed the nomination, saying that
Sunni leaders participating in the National Forces
Front (also called the National Front and Dialogue
Council), agreed on the Juburi nomination.
The front reportedly represents Sunni
religious, political and tribal groups, including
the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Council of National
Dialogue, the Ifta Council and the Shura Council
of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah, as well as Sufi
and Salafist groups. "This front is considered the
ultimate authority for approving or choosing the
candidates who are reserved for the Sunni
community," said Pachachi, according to a April 2
report by RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI). Some
members of the Muslim Scholars Association also
belong to the front, although the association does
not officially participate in it.
Shi'ite
leaders quickly made it known that they would not
accept Juburi, a former Ba'athist and associate of
Saddam Hussein's family, as Speaker. They
contended that the Juburi nomination did not
represent all Sunni groups and therefore could not
be considered. Thousands of Iraqis reportedly
demonstrated in Tikrit on April 2 in favor of
Juburi's nomination. But in an effort to pressure
Sunnis to find another candidate, Shi'ite leaders
fired back, threatening to nominate their own
Speaker. The Sunni party Constitutional Monarchy
Movement also expressed dissatisfaction with the
Juburi nomination, claiming instead to support UIA
candidate Fawwaz al-Jarba for the position.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi public expressed
growing frustration over the delay. The
frustration was brushed off ,however, by UIA
leader and prime ministerial candidate Ibrahim
Jaafari, who told washingtonpost.com on April 3:
"The reason it took time to reach this first stage
is because there's a difference between
dictatorship and democracy. Dictatorship takes a
short time. Democracy takes a longer time, because
people need to negotiate with each other to get
the best results." Juburi, meanwhile, accused the
UIA of attempting to establish "hegemony" over the
Sunni choice by driving a wedge between Sunni
groups.
A breakthrough
The
UIA's threat put Sunnis on the defensive
nonetheless produced the desired effect. Hasani
was nominated and elected Speaker. UA candidate
Husayn al-Shahristani and Kurdistan Coalition
candidate Arif Tayfur were elected deputy
speakers.
Speaking to RFI on April 3,
Juburi said of his withdrawal: "I find it to be in
the national interest that the political process
is successful, [and] I believe that doctor Hajim
[Hasani] is a convenient [candidate] too, and that
he will fulfill the same role that I had expected
myself to fulfill. He is a person able to
represent the interests of the people who elected
me and chose me for this post." Juburi added that
he did not want to give the impression of craving
posts and titles, and consequently informed prime
ministerial candidate Jaafari, President Yawir,
and acting assembly Speaker Dari al-Fayyad of his
decision.
Juburi told al-Jazeera in a
April 4 interview that the UIA offered to withdraw
its candidate for the post in exchange for
Juburi's withdrawal from the race. "Our position
... has been that we objected to the UIA naming
one of its members [a reference to the UIA's Sunni
candidate, Fawwaz al-Jarba,] who won votes of the
Shi'ite list and the Shi'ite voters as a
representative of the Sunni Arabs to assume one of
the primary positions. We had what we wanted.
Therefore, we made them withdraw this candidate."
Juburi said that he accepted Hasani as the
Speaker and conceded that his own nomination would
not have been accepted. "I adopt
anti-de-Ba'athification principles and I talk
about liberation. I denounced terrorist
operations, but I support the noble national
resistance, which targets the Hummer, the
occupation. I believe these principles are
unacceptable to others."
Sunni
tensions
The internal friction among the
Sunni groups is best reflected in the growing
realization by some Sunnis that they should
distance themselves from the Muslim Scholars
Association led by Harith al-Dari, which has
served as the leading proponent of the
"resistance." One example of the friction is the
recent issuance of a fatwa, or religious
edict, by 64 Sunni clerics calling on Iraqis to
join the army and police to protect citizens'
lives, property, and honor.
The intention
of the fatwa appears to be more of an
attempt to temper the Shi'ite and Kurdish
domination of the security services than an offer
of Sunni reconciliation or a contribution to
Iraq's democratic development. Hardly a
full-fledged endorsement of the new government,
the fatwa said in part, "The army and
police are the safety valves [of Iraqi society]
and they are the army of the entire nation and not
militias of a special faction or party."
Nevertheless, it sparked outrage among some
members of the Muslim Scholars Association, which
issued a statement denying its support of the
edict.
Association members Harith
al-Ubaydi and Ahmad Abd al-Ghafur al-Samarra'i
(the imam who announced the fatwa) have
reportedly left the association and joined the
Iraqi Islamic Party. New Speaker Hasani was a
member of the party, but withdrew his membership
last year after party leader Muhsin Abd al-Hamid
ordered all members to withdraw from the interim
government. The party later expressed regret for
following the association's lead and boycotting
January's elections.
The association,
meanwhile, has launched accusations at Sunni
leaders Pachachi and Sharif Ali bin al-Husayn
(Constitutional Monarchy Movement) and at Shi'ite
leader Ahmad Chalabi, claiming all three men have
attempted to ride the wave of resistance in order
to achieve personal gains, Al-Hayat reported on
April 4. All three men have claimed to have
established contacts with members of the
resistance interested in taking part in the
government. Association member Khalid Fakhri
al-Jumayli told the daily, "They want to deceive
the resistance and are giving promises they cannot
fulfill in an attempt to extinguish the political
program of the resistance." He added that certain
positions taken by the association have also
"helped split the Arab Sunni's political rank and
weaken their representation in the parliamentary
elections process".
Distributing
influential posts
Sunnis are also pressing
for a more equitable distribution of cabinet
posts, a demand that might be resisted by Shi'ites
and Kurds. "We will not accept only four
ministries for the Sunni Arabs. We want as many
ministerial portfolios as designated for the
Kurds. This is how things were during the first
and second governments," Pachachi told al-Jazeera
on April 1.
Ali al-Rubay'i, spokesman for
Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad, told
washingtonpost.com that Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani has advised the UIA to give the
Sunnis control over either the foreign or defense
minister posts, with the other post going to the
Kurds, the website reported on April 3. The UIA
would retain control over the interior ministry
and intelligence services - posts that some Sunnis
believe they have a right to administer.
Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036 |
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