World

Race For Iraqi Leadership Narrows

February 22, 2005 / 8:00 AM EST / CBS/AP

Ahmad Chalabi, a secularist once known for his ties to Washington, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the conservative interim vice president, will face off in a secret ballot to determine who will be the Shiite majority's choice for Iraqi prime minister, officials said Monday.

The clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance which holds most of the seats in the 275-member National Assembly had for days been unable to decide between Chalabi, 58, and al-Jaafari, the president of the Islamic Dawa Party.

Chalabi spokesman Haidar al-Moussawi said a meeting of alliance representatives ended by naming two nominees who will vie for the candidacy in a secret ballot, which will take place on Tuesday morning.

He added that the most powerful man in predominantly Shiite Iraq — Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani — had met with interim Finance Minister Abdel Abdul-Mahdi in the southern city of Najaf and gave his backing for whatever decision the alliance takes.

"Al-Sistani assured that whoever the Alliance will choose, he will agree on him," al-Moussawi said.

Although Chalabi and his supporters claim he had the support needed for the nomination, the vote was anything but a sure thing.

In other developments

Four U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, three of them Monday when a roadside bomb detonated as they were evacuating a fellow soldier, the U.S. military said.

Eight soldiers were also wounded when the roadside bomb exploded. The soldiers were evacuating a soldier who'd been injured when his convoy collided with a civilian vehicle, the U.S. command said in a statement. The location of the accident was not given.

A fourth U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday, the military said, giving no other details.

U.S. Marines targeted insurgents in raids on houses on the second day of an offensive in several troubled cities west of Baghdad. In Ramadi, Marines set up checkpoints, searched cars and sealed off sections of the city to prevent people from entering or leaving as they carried out their forays.

Iraqi Maj. Abdul Karim al-Faraji said troops detained a prominent Sunni Muslim sheik, Mohammed Nasir Ali al-Ijbie, who heads the al-Bufaraj tribe, along with 12 of his relatives.

Militants released a pair of kidnapped Indonesian journalists captured last week in Ramadi. Reporter Meutya Viada Hafid, 26, and 36-year-old cameraman Budiyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, arrived in Jordan late Monday.

As of Saturday, at least 1,478 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main group making up the alliance, had hoped to avoid a secret ballot, and tried to convince Chalabi to resign, some of its senior officials said.

"We had hoped that we would agree on one person without the secret ballot, because we fear that such a vote will cause divisions inside the alliance" Jawad Mohammed Taqi, a senior member of the group known as SCIRI said.

He added that "Chalabi seems very confident and he believes that when we hold a secret ballot he will get the majority. I believe this is an exaggeration."

Whoever wins the ballot, he will face off against interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, 59, whose party endorsed him as its candidate for the post. His party came in third after a Kurdish coalition and received 40 seats.

"My list nominated me for the prime ministership," Allawi, who is also a Shiite, said Monday.

Chalabi's candidacy could create problems for the alliance because of his vow to forge ahead with de-Baathification — the effort to rid the government and administration of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

Allawi told The Associated Press last week that the alliance must change its platform of purging former Baathists from government positions if it wants national unity.

He said any divergence from a policy seeking unity "will throw the country into problems, severe problems."

The key challenge for the new government will be ending the insurgency that kills dozens of people every week. Most Iraqis say only negotiations will end the attacks.

A two-thirds majority — 182 seats — is needed to confirm the next president, two vice presidents, the prime minister and his Cabinet. The presidential posts are largely ceremonial and the true power lies with the prime minister.

Alliance representatives had gathered to decide on which two candidates would face a secret ballot among the 140 members of the alliance elected to the assembly on Jan. 30.

All the main contenders and power-brokers later sat for dinner in a heavily fortified building that serves as the headquarters for SCIRI leader Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

Chalabi aide Frances Brooke, a former Washington lobbyist, said Chalabi had refused to withdraw his nomination for prime minister and forced the secret vote. Many alliance members tried to pressure Chalabi to withdraw in favor of al-Jaafari.

"The majority is on his side," Brooke said.

According to insiders, mostly in the Chalabi camp, he reportedly has the support of about 80 members — a group said to represent independents, Kurds, women and those close to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Shiite politicians such as al-Jaafari have been quick to reassure the country's minority Sunni Arabs they will have a role in forming a new government and drafting Iraq's first democratic constitution.

The Shiite choice of prime minister, either a secular figure or al-Jaafari — considered by many to be a cleric in a business suit — could not only set the tone of a new government but also influence the constitution.

"Our Sunni brothers should be able to take part in the political process. We always assure that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds will all be treated as Iraqi nationals first and foremost, and then we will respect their ethnic or religious identity," al-Jaafari said after his meeting with Allawi. "We stressed the need (for) our Sunni brothers to participate not only in parliament but also in the system."

Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of Iraq population of 26 million and mainly boycotted the elections.

Shiite members of the interim government also said suicide bombings and other attacks Friday and Saturday that left nearly 100 people dead, would not be allowed to derail the political process and start a war between the two religious groups.

"Iraqis will stand united as Iraqis foremost, and Iraq will not be drawn into a sectarian war," Iraq's interim National Security Advisor, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said.