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Stalemate may force out new prime minister
By THOMAS WAGNER
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Nearly three months after millions of Iraqis defied insurgents and risked their lives to elect a parliament, the country is still struggling to form a new government — in large part because of infighting among Shiite and Kurdish factions.
Animosity and distrust left over from Saddam Hussein's brutal regime also are contributing to the delay in forming a Cabinet — a delay that now is close to imperiling the country's democratic progress: If the Cabinet isn't appointed by early next month, interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari could be forced to step down.
Attacks on the rise
The stalemate also comes at a time of stepped-up attacks by insurgents and a U.S. official warned the country was being left with an interim government in limbo at a time when strong leadership is needed to combat the violence.
On Saturday, Ayad Allawi, Iraq's outgoing prime minister, urged the legislators to "safeguard Iraq's march toward democracy" by ending the standoff.
It is blamed largely on two things: Kurdish factions that oppose al-Jaafari, a Shiite Arab leader, as prime minister; and Shiite factions that don't want ministers selected from Allawi's secular party.
Al-Jaafari's Islamic Dawa Party, a major group in the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, has close ties with Iran's religious leaders and with Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Some Kurdish legislators want a more secular prime minister and one who favors a federal government that would give strong autonomy to Iraq's Kurdish north.
Major distrust seen
In a telephone interview Saturday, Sami al-Askari, a member of the Shiite alliance, said some Kurds distrust al-Jaafari so much that they want to delay the formation of the Cabinet in an effort to unseat him.
"Some Kurds are holding up al-Jaafari's efforts to form a government so the deadline will expire and another prime minister will have to be selected," al-Askari said.
However, Fouad Massoum, a senior official in President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, said few Kurds in parliament are taking that stand. "We don't object to al-Jaafari, and his removal as Iraq's prime minister would mean we all fail in forming a government of national unity," he said.
Under Iraq's transitional law, al-Jaafari will automatically lose his position if he does not name a Cabinet by May 7.
Allawi, a secular Shiite, is resented by many Shiites. They accuse Allawi's outgoing administration of having brought into his interim government some former members of Saddam's Baath Party.
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