Shias to be told to field more candidates for premier post
The Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq’s parliament remains opposed to a new term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and will ask the Shiites to present new names for consideration for the top government post, a Sunni spokesman said today.
The statement by spokesman Dhafir al-Ani was issued after Kurdish politicians also reaffirmed their opposition to al-Jaafari. That leaves the Shiites little choice but to reconsider their nominee if the deadlock over formation of a new government can be overcome.
Al-Ani said the Sunnis will deliver a letter today to the Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim notifying him that they “still have reservations about al-Jaafari”.
“We will ask the Shiite alliance to present names for other candidates so that discussions and decisions can be made on the names,” al-Ani said.
The Sunnis were today expected to meet a three-member Shiite committee formed to discuss the impasse over al-Jaafari’s nomination, which has blocked formation of this government.
Representatives of the seven factions in the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance met yesterday as the first formal step to break the deadlock. The meeting produced no breakthroughs as al-Jaafari’s key allies stuck by their support for him, according to Shiite officials.
Several names have been floated as possible alternatives as the Shiites face massive pressure from the US and top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to speed formation of the new government.
The Shiites planned to meet again to review their options.
Late yesterday, the Shiite committee met with Kurdish leaders, who stuck by their insistence that al-Jaafari must go. Kurdish elder statesman Mahmoud Othman said the Kurds made clear they would not participate in a government headed by al-Jaafari.
Sunnis and Kurds have blamed al-Jaafari for the rise in tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, which boiled over following the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, triggering reprisal attacks against Sunnis that plunged the nation to the brink of civil war.
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