Iraq Assembly Approves Cabinet
The interim National Assembly approved by a show of hands Thursday a partial Cabinet, including 27 ministers and five acting ministers, ushering in Iraq's first elected government since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The Cabinet was approved by 180 lawmakers out of the 185 present in the 275-member parliament, Speaker Hajim al-Hassani announced to applause.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari submitted a broad-based Cabinet, including members of Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. But disputes remained over two deputy prime ministers' slots and the defense, oil, electricity, industry and human rights ministries.
Al-Jaafari himself will be acting defense minister, a position that was supposed to go to a Sunni Arab.
Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon favorite from al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated alliance, will be one of four deputy prime ministers and acting oil minister.
Kurdish official and former Vice President Rowsch Nouri Shaways will be another deputy and acting electricity minister.
In other developments:
Al-Jaafari has struggled to reconcile the competing demands of Iraq's myriad factions since Jan. 30 elections.
Shiite leaders rejected his initial choices for a Sunni deputy prime minister and defense minister because of suspicions they had ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, which brutally repressed Iraqi's majority Shiites and Kurds.
Al-Jaafari also faced infighting within his United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, over the oil and electricity portfolios.
Lawmakers earlier said the Cabinet would include 17 Shiite Arab ministers, eight Kurds, six Sunnis and a Christian. Among them are six women, responsible for seven portfolios, according to Thursday's announcement.
President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents signed off on the list before Thursday's historic vote.
A handover between outgoing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and al-Jaafari will take place within days, the incoming premier told reporters Wednesday.
"The Iraqis will find that this government has religious, ethnic, political and geographic variety, in addition to the participation of women," he said from the steps of his office. "Now that the process has started, we will spare no effort to bring back a smile to children's faces."
Allawi's Iraqi List party, which has 40 seats in the National Assembly, was not included in the new Cabinet. Alliance lawmakers said they had given up trying to balance Allawi's demands with those of Sunni factions that could offer help in beginning talks with Sunni militants, who are believed to be the backbone of the insurgency.
Many Shiites have long resented the secular Allawi, accusing his outgoing administration of including former Baathists in the government and security forces.
Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people. The Kurds make up 20 percent, and the Sunni Arabs, who largely stayed away from the elections either in boycott or for fear of attacks, are roughly 15 percent to 20 percent.
Al-Jaafari had been under mounting U.S. pressure to form a transitional government so it can step up and coordinate efforts to suppress the insurgency. Many here believe the political impasse had emboldened insurgents, who have staged a series of dramatic and well-coordinated attacks in recent weeks.
On Wednesday, Lamia Abed Khadouri al-Sakri, 50, a Shiite Muslim legislator, was killed at her home, becoming the first elected official slain since millions of Iraqis voted in the country's landmark parliamentary election on Jan. 30.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad offered its condolences Thursday to the family of al-Sakri.
"We condemn this cowardly attack on a woman who was working to bring democracy to Iraq, and we admire her courage and her dedication to making life better in Iraq," embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said in a statement.