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US envoy talks with top Shiite leader
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-08 08:39
The US ambassador held talks with a top Shiite leader Tuesday as Iraqi
factions wrangled over a new government. The prime minister declared he would
not be "blackmailed" into stepping aside, and the Shiite majority balked at
convening the parliament.
Iraqi president
Jalal Talabani, right, talks with Palestinian official Dalil al-Qassus, as
they conduct talks in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, March 7, 2006.
[AP] |
The inability to agree is threatening
to crush American hopes of beginning a troop pullout this summer as violence
rages on. Bombings, mortar blasts and gunfire killed 19 more people throughout
the country Tuesday, and police also reported finding four more bullet-riddled
bodies 錕斤拷 two of them with their eyes gouged out.
Holding a first session of parliament is a required step toward forming a new
government. Fifteen days after the first meeting, parliament is supposed to
elect a new president 錕斤拷 a job the incumbent, Jalal Talabani, wants to keep. In
15 more days, the parliament is to approve the nominated prime minister and 30
days later must vote on his Cabinet.
Underscoring US concerns over the deteriorating political situation,
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad held a meeting with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the
powerful Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the
two dominant parties in the Shiite coalition that won the Dec. 15 parliamentary
elections.
The two met at al-Hakim's Baghdad home to discuss "the current political
situation concerning the formation of a new government and developments related
to the alliance's candidate to head the Cabinet (al-Jaafari)," the SCIRI Web
site reported with an accompanying photo of the session.
The US Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for further
information.
In an interview published Tuesday, Khalilzad said the 2003 US ouster of
Saddam Hussein had opened a "Pandora's box" that could see the violence and
turmoil now gripping Iraq turn into an all-out regional war if American troops
are withdrawn too quickly.
"We have opened the Pandora's box and the question is, what is the way
forward?" Khalilzad told the Los Angeles Times. "The way forward, in my view, is
an effort to build bridges across (Iraq's) communities."
But narrowing differences among Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds has become
an increasingly difficult task in the aftermath of the Feb. 22 bombing that
destroyed the golden dome atop a Shiite shrine in the mainly Sunni city of
Samarra.
The attack set off two weeks of sectarian revenge attacks, mainly targeting
Sunni mosques, clerics and neighborhoods. Sunni politicians have accused the
Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, of
launching many of the attacks with the blessing of the Shiite-controlled
government security apparatus.
That and the simmering feud between Talabani, the Kurdish president, and
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite prime minister who owed his re-nomination to
al-Sadr's backing, spurred the formation of a coalition determined to block
al-Jaafari's second term.
If Kurds and Sunnis refuse Cabinet posts because of al-Jaafari, it could mark
a failure of the US goal of setting up a unity government with support of all
ethnic and religious factions.
Washington policy holds that such a unity government would inspire sufficient
loyalty from all parties to enable it to fight the raging insurgency by itself
as American forces began to withdraw.
Talabani, with the backing of Sunni and some secular political parties,
notified al-Hakim last week that the opposition coalition members would not join
any government led by al-Jaafari.
Al-Hakim tried to fend off the political insurrection by having aides issue
statements that alternately sought to placate both the anti-al-Jaafari coalition
and his fellow Shiites led by al-Sadr.
Al-Hakim is widely believed to agree that al-Jaafari is a divisive figure but
is worried about provoking a split within his own Shiite ranks if he publicly
says so.
Al-Jaafari declared Tuesday he would not be "blackmailed" into standing
aside.
"Dr. al-Jaafari will not be subdued by blackmail. Dr. al-Jaafari is not
violating the constitution. I am not moody, and I am not personalizing the
constitution," the prime minister said.
An evening meeting between the Kurdish faction in parliament and the Shiite
United Iraqi Alliance failed to break the impasse.
"There is no progress. We are sticking to our stance and they explained their
stance," Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman told The Associated Press.
The gloves were clearly off as Othman said the Kurds demanded that al-Hakim
respond in writing whether he supported al-Jaafari and why. The demand was
designed to force al-Hakim to come down on one side or the other.
On Monday, the Shiites blunted Talabani's effort to bring the dispute to a
head by calling parliament into session Sunday for the first time since the
election and the Feb. 12 certification of the vote 錕斤拷 a deadline dictated by the
new constitution.
Sensing a split in their ranks and uncertain how to overcome it, the Shiites
blocked the convocation of parliament by having the Shiite vice president refuse
to sign Talabani's decree. On Tuesday the Shiites sent Talabani a letter
formally asking him to delay his decree, saying there were matters that had not
yet been decided.
"The political committee has decided to ask President Talabani to postpone
the first meeting of parliament until after the 12th in order to give a chance
for agreement and unity among the political blocs," legislator Khaled al-Attiyah
said.
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