Kurds and Shiites seek Iraqi govt deal
Kurdish leaders were converging on Baghdad for last-minute talks today with majority Shiites as both sides pressed to secure a deal to form a coalition government.
They have been haggling over the makeup of the new government ever since January’s general election elected a new national assembly. Parliament meets on Wednesday.
The political deal calls for Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, to be named president. Conservative Islamic Dawa party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Shiite majority United Iraqi Alliance coalition, would become prime minister.
“We’re not interested in the government posts, we’re more interested in Kurdistan and Iraq’s interests,” Talabani said.
“We have made good progress. We have a common understanding with the United Iraqi Alliance that we should establish an Iraqi state based on the principles of federalism and respecting human and women’s rights,” Talabani said.
Ali al-Dabagh of the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance said he was optimistic a final deal would be reached before parliament meet.
But “if no agreement is reached, the first session of the national assembly will be held on Wednesday anyway,” he said.
In northern Iraq, gunmen killed a Kurdish cameraman for the Kurdish satellite channel KurdSat, witnesses who saw his corpse transported by Iraqi troops outside the governor’s office in Mosul said.
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