Iraq: Iraq's parliament approved six remaining cabinet appointments yesterday, but one nominee refused to accept his ministry.
Hashem Shibli, a Sunni Arab, re- jected the human rights portfolio, leaving prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who could not obtain agreement on a woman for one of four deputy premierships, two posts short for his 37-member government.
Mr Shibli said he had not been consulted about the nomination and was chosen only because he belongs to the Sunni community. "Concentrating on sectarian identities leads to divisions in the society and state, and for that reason I respectfully decline the post," he stated.
Ethnic and sectarian divisions have held up the formation of a government since elections on January 30th. In a bid to mollify alienated and under-represented Sunnis in the hope that their presence would reduce support for the increasingly deadly insurgency, Mr Jaafari tried to recruit moderate Sunnis.
But radical Shias in the United Iraqi Alliance, to which Mr Jaafari belongs, vetoed most candidates for the six posts allocated to the Sunnis, claiming they had connections with the ousted regime.
Since the month allocated for forming a government ended yesterday, the Shias were compelled to relent. After rejecting 10 candidates for the hotly contested defence ministry, the favourite, Saadoun Dulaimi, a member of the main Sunni tribal group in the restive Anbar province and a former army colonel who left Iraq in 1984, was given the portfolio. He is regarded as a figure who could both energise Iraq's new armed forces and work with the Shia minister of interior.
Former Republican Guard general Abed Mutlak Jibuouri, a second Sunni, was named deputy prime minister, and the ministry of industry was given to a third, Usamah Najafi.
Ibrahim Bahr Uloom, son of a prominent Shia cleric, was appointed minister of oil. Mr Uloom, who served as minister of oil in the US-appointed government in office from September 2003 until July 2004, pledged to raise Iraq's production and end corruption in the oil sector.
Mohsen Slash, a Shia, was chosen to be minister of electricity at a time the power supply is falling due to the post-war failure to renovate power stations and repair distribution networks, a shortage of fuel, and violence. The delay in appointing these two ministries was due to infighting between Shia factions.
The Shias, with 148 members in the 275-seat assembly, hold 17 ministries, the Sunnis, nine, the Kurds, with 77 members, eight and the Christians, one.
