Alliance urged to reconsider Jaafari as leader

IRAQ: The United Iraqi Alliance, the largest grouping in parliament, said on Saturday that it would continue to back Ibrahim Jaafari as its nominee for prime minister. Legislator Jawad Maliki said the group rejected calls by Sunni and Kurdish groups for the Shias to name a new candidate for the post.

Dr Jaafari, spokesman of the Dawa party, has served as premier during the transitional period. He has been criticised for being weak and for allowing militias to take over the security agencies. He secured the nomination by a one-vote margin over his nearest rival, Adil Abdel Mahdi, the candidate of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the second largest faction in the alliance.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Adnan Dulaimi, head of the leading coalition of Sunni Arab parties, have called upon the alliance to reconsider. Mr Talabani said that it "has the right of nominating, not the right of appointing", adding: "We want a national unity government, which means not imposing someone."

After conferring with Mr Talabani in Baghdad, Gen John Abizaid, head of the US central command, urged the Iraqis to form a government of national unity but refused to become embroiled in the dispute over portfolios.

Mr Dulaimi revealed that the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front had also asked the Shias to change their candidate.

Mr Dulaimi said that Dr Jaafari had failed to address a range of issues, including "security, infrastructure, unemployment, killings, raids against mosques".

However, the head of the largest faction in the Shia Alliance, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, rejected interference and said the alliance had the right to nominate people for major ministries. Mr Sadr's votes secured the nomination for Dr Jaafari. SCIRI also supports him and Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has called on the alliance to stay united.

However, Sheikh Muhammad Ya'coubi, the spiritual mentor of the Fadhila Party, the third group in the alliance, has indicated unwillingness to back Dr Jaafari and other members of the outgoing cabinet because of "their failure to save the country from the mess it is in".

Kurds, Sunnis and secularists have at least 133 votes, enough to block the emergence of a government. If the alliance remains unified, it has 130 votes but cannot muster the two-thirds majority needed to choose a president, the first step in forming a government.

However, it is not clear whether Sunnis and Kurds are using their opposition to Dr Jaafari to deny him the post or to bargain for a more advantageous powersharing deal. Mr Talabani indicated that the latter could be the case when he said Kurdish groups "want to be real partners in the government, not ministers without a voice". He said they wanted "a real share of power" and a role in drawing up policies.

Mr Talabani said he would convene the new assembly before March 12th, a deadline set after violence surged as a result of the bombing of the Shia mosque in Samarra on February 22nd.