Pressure Mounts For Iraq PM To Resign
Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over a recent surge of sectarian killing that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.
The delay forming a government has prevented the parliament elected Dec. 15 from meeting since the vote was certified last month. But Kurdish and some Shiite officials said Sunday it should be ready to convene within days.
The political turmoil has left a dangerous leadership vacuum as Iraqi armed forces, backed by the U.S. military, battle to contain the violence that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
In other developments:
Pace said the bloody violence that erupted after a Shiite mosque was attacked has led the nation to the abyss. He said Iraqis realize it's "not where they want to go."
Pace said progress is being made toward training Iraqi forces to take over security of the country. Officials hope the empowered Iraqi troops will allow U-S forces to leave.
Sunni Arab leaders blamed Shiite militiamen operating within Interior Ministry ranks for at least two attacks against them Sunday.
Sheik Shaker Mahmoud, the imam at west Baghdad's al-Nour mosque, said the building was attacked by "a gang" driving Interior Ministry cars and wearing military uniforms. Masked gunmen guarded the bullet-scarred mosque Sunday, and at least two unexploded grenades could be seen.
The influential Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars also blamed the Interior Ministry for the assassination of a nephew and cousin of its leader, Harith al-Dhari. Their bodies were found in a bullet-riddled vehicle in west Baghdad, police said. An imam from a Sunni mosque south of the capital was injured in the attack, the endowment said.
The Interior Ministry denied involvement in both attacks.
Talabani said Abizaid assured him that U.S. forces "are ready to stay as long as we ask them, no matter what the period is."
Sunni and Shiite clerics, meanwhile, issued a joint appeal for Muslim unity and the protection of religious sites.
"Extinguish the flames of the sectarian treachery," said the statement by followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and members of the Sunni Endowment, a government agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines. "Every drop of blood shed is a waste."
U.S. officials believe a unity government that includes Iraq's main ethnic and religious communities is essential for stabilizing the country and allowing U.S. and other foreign forces to start pulling out in the summer.
As the largest bloc in parliament, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance gets the first chance to form a government, but it does not have sufficient seats to do so alone. Sunni, Kurdish and some secular parties are now pressing the Shiite Alliance to withdraw its nomination of al-Jaafari, who has served as prime minister in the transitional government that took power in April.
The Sunni Arab minority blames al-Jaafari for failing to control Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra. More than 500 people were killed in the violence that followed, according to police and hospital accounts.
Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, said Iraq has gone from "bad to worse."
"Al-Jaafari's government failed to solve the chaos that followed the Samarra explosions and did not take any measures to solve the security crisis that could have pushed the country into civil war," he said in comments posted on the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front Web site.
Kurds are angry because they believe al-Jaafari is holding up resolution of their claims to control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
"If al-Jaafari tries to form a government, he will not get any kind of cooperation," said Mahmoud Othman, a leading figure in the Kurdish bloc.
President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, entered the fray Saturday, saying the Shiite Alliance should choose another candidate for the sake of consensus.
"I want to be clear, it is not against Dr. al-Jaafari as a person. He has been my friend for 25 years," Talabani told reporters.
The Alliance itself is divided over who should be prime minister: al-Jaafari won the nomination by a single vote at a Feb. 12 Shiite caucus. Some members are troubled by al-Jaafari's ties to al-Sadr, whose support was key in defeating Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the choice of powerful Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.
Al-Sadr and al-Hakim, who both have powerful militias behind them, are frequently at odds politically.
In a bid for support, two lawmakers from al-Jaafari's Dawa Party visited the Shiite holy city of Najaf Saturday to seek the endorsement of Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They hinted al-Sistani approved of their candidate. But a senior al-Sistani aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the dispute, said the spiritual leader had indirectly suggested al-Jaafari should step aside.
On Sunday, it was the turn of Kurdish leaders to meet al-Sistani, headed by Planning Minister Barham Saleh, a member of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The delegation also met with al-Sadr and other top religious leaders.
Othman, the Kurdish official, said he expected a presidential decree to be issued Sunday summoning parliament to meet Thursday or Saturday. Haitham al-Husseini, an al-Hakim spokesman, agreed lawmakers would likely convene in the next few days.
But a member of the Dawa Party-Iraq Organization, which is close to al-Jaafari's party, rejected the idea of meeting until there is agreement on a prime minister and president. Khudayer al-Khuzai warned if Kurds reject al-Jaafari, Shiites could turn against Talabani, the first Kurd to become president since independence from Britain in 1932.