Kurds, Shiites push ahead on Iraq government (Agencies) Updated: 2005-03-15 08:38
Kurdish and Shiite leaders agreed Monday to convene Iraq's new parliament
this week even if they fail to iron out some wrinkles in their deal to form a
coalition government.
Shiite officials said they also agreed to reach out to the country's Sunni
Arab community to name the parliament speaker for the 275-member National
Assembly that convenes Wednesday.
The Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance and a Kurdish coalition, which
won the two biggest blocks of seats in Jan. 30 elections, agreed last week to
form a coalition government with Islamic Dawa party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari as
prime minister. In return, Jalal Talabani will become Iraq's first Kurdish
president.
![Iraq's Interim President, Ghazi al-Yawar, speaks to journalists in Baghdad, March 14, 2005. Al-Yawar said on Monday the make-up of the new Iraqi government should not be based on sectarian and ethnic quotas, stressing the necessity of reaching out to all the Iraqi political forces. [Reuters]](xin_040302150842062260353.jpg) Iraq's Interim President, Ghazi al-Yawar,
speaks to journalists in Baghdad, March 14, 2005. Al-Yawar said on Monday
the make-up of the new Iraqi government should not be based on sectarian
and ethnic quotas, stressing the necessity of reaching out to all the
Iraqi political forces. [Reuters] | "We discussed
the blueprint of the agreement reached Thursday. Some issues were revised and
those revisions are still being discussed," alliance member Ali al-Dabagh told
The Associated Press.
Al-Dabagh expressed optimism a final deal would be reached soon, but added
that even without an agreement "the first session of the National Assembly will
be held on Wednesday anyway."
Barham Saleh, a Kurd, indicated the two groups want to reach out to other
factions to fill some Cabinet posts.
He said Shiite and Kurd negotiators planned to meet Tuesday with
representatives from interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List, which
placed a distant third in the parliamenetary elections.
![Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, likely soon to be named Iraqi president, speaks at a press conference in Chwalan, near Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq Monday, March 14, 2005. Kurdish leaders were converging in Baghdad for last-minute talks Monday with majority Shiites as both sides pressed to secure a deal to form a coalition government before the newly-elected parliament meets for the first time later this week. [AP]](xin_280302150845906284634.jpg) Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, likely soon to
be named Iraqi president, speaks at a press conference in Chwalan, near
Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq Monday, March 14, 2005. Kurdish leaders were
converging in Baghdad for last-minute talks Monday with majority Shiites
as both sides pressed to secure a deal to form a coalition government
before the newly-elected parliament meets for the first time later this
week. [AP] | The interim government, meanwhile, announced that Iraqi security forces had
captured two of Saddam's relatives in his hometown of Tikrit and alleged they
helped launch terrorist attacks in Iraq.
Its statement said one-time Saddam bodyguard Marwan Taher Abdul Rashid and
Abdullah Maher Abdul Rashid were arrested last Tuesday. State-run Iraqiya
television said the two men were cousins and Abdullah was a brother-in-law of
Saddam's slain son Qusai.
Abdullah was strongly believed to have "used big amounts of money that he
received from Qusai ... to finance terrorism in Iraq," and Marwan "has been
involved in number of attacks against the security forces," the government
statement said, giving no other details.
Neither man was listed on any of the American most-wanted lists.
Al-Dabagh declined to discusses details of the issues that had snagged the
Shiite alliance's talks with the Kurds, but did say that the negotiators meeting
at a home inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone talked about who should
get the parliament speaker post.
"We still do not have an agreement on who will be parliament speaker," he
said. "We do not want to name the speaker; the Sunnis must participate in this
decision." He said they would meet with Sunni Arab reprsentatives Tuesday.
Sunni Arabs, who make up only about 20 percent of the population but were the
dominant group under Saddam Hussein's regime, largely stayed away from the
elections — either to honor a boycott call or because they feared being attacked
at the polls by insurgents.
Sunni Arabs are thought to make up the core of the insurgency and including
them in a future government or in the political process is seen as a way to
isolate the militants.
The Shiite alliance won 140 seats in the National Assembly, but need the
Kurds' 75 seats to assemble the two-thirds majority required to elect a
president, who will then nominate the prime minister.
Since the Gulf War of 1991, Kurds have enjoyed de-facto independence,
protected from Saddam's military by a U.S.-enforced no-fly-zone. The Kurdish
enclave has remained off-limits to the new Iraqi army formed since Saddam's
ouster two years ago.
The political negotiations continued as U.S. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the northern city of Mosul to visit the
new commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner.
Elsewhere in Mosul, gunmen killed Hussam Hilal Sarsam, a Kurdish cameraman
for the Kurdish satellite television channel KurdSat, witnesses said. They said
saw his body was carried away by Iraqi troops outside the governor's office in
Mosul said.
In Youssifiyah, a town 12 miles south of Baghdad, a suicide car bomb missed a
convoy of sport utility vehicles and instead hit a civilian vehicle, wounding
four people, police Lt. Adnan Mohammed said.
A roadside bomb in Baghdad wounded five bodyguards of Sa'ad al-Amily, the
Health Ministry's director general, a police captain said, speaking on condition
of anonymity. The guards were heading to al-Amily's home to pick him up when
they were attacked, he said.
Just west of Baghdad, gunmen killed an Iraqi army captain while he was
driving his car in Abu Ghraib district, 1st Lt. Akram al-Zobaei
said.
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