Post by Bozur on Mar 2, 2005 18:02:44 GMT -5
Mideast - AFP
Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite leadership begin heavy bargaining
Tue Mar 1, 1:16 PM ET Mideast - AFP
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - Negotiations to form Iraq's next government intensified as Shiite Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the frontrunner to become the next prime minister, and Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani held talks on forming a coalition.
AFP Photo / Tue Mar 1, 1:16 PM ET / Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari (L), likely to become Iraq's next prime minister, walks with Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani (C) as interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (R) follows in the northern city of Salahauddin.(AFP/Safin Hamed)
"We decided to continue the negotiations and create an Iraqi government of national unity, in which Arab Sunnis should play a role," Barzani told reporters, after the two met for several hours in the Kurdistan mountain retreat of Salahuddin.
The two groups, which have bickered in the past over Kurdish demand's for wide-ranging autonomy, papered over their differences as they vowed to create a national unity government.
"There was a sharing of our points of view and we have decided to continue the discussions," said Jaafari, who was due to visit the other main Kurdish leader, Jalal al-Talabani, in Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday.
The Shiite leader added that the sides had "resolved some points" but declined to elaborate. Jaafari, who headed a five-man delegation, reiterated the joint commitment to "the participation of all in the political process and on the necessity of Sunnis being represented in the next government."
But before joining any coalition, the Kurds are demanding written pledges that the next government will follow to the letter the interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), and work toward restoring Kirkuk to the Kurds, interim deputy prime minister Barham Saleh told AFP in Baghdad.
Saleh insisted there was "broad agreement" between Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and the Kurdish list, the two biggest vote getters in January's historic election, but repeated that the Kurds wanted more than words.
"We would need specific written pledges and agreements between all the various lists in parliament as far as their commitment to the provisions of the TAL," Saleh said.
Jafaari has previously said he wants to repeal the interim law's provision that a two-thirds majority in three provinces could veto the constitution, which is due to be drafted by the next government and put to a referendum in October.
Kurds -- who control the provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah -- see the provision as an iron-clad guarantee that they will be able to guard their virtual autonomy in northern Iraq and ensure they are never again persecuted by Iraq's Arab majority.
Kurdish suspicions towards Iraq's Shiite majority were stirred last March during the haggling over the interim law when Shiite members of Iraq's Governing Council boycotted the signing ceremony because of the provision.
Reference to the interim law was dropped from UN Security Council resolution 1546 last June which recognized the end of the US occupation, due to Shiite discontent over the near-sovereignty granted the Kurds in the document.
The TAL also covers the status of the oil rich city of Kirkuk, which Kurds demand be included in the Kurdistan region as part of any deal on a future Iraqi federation.
Kurds regard the city as their Jerusalem and claim it was stripped away from them by a forced settlement of Arabs in the region and the expulsion of thousands of Kurds during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Saleh said the Kurds also want written guarantees on Kirkuk.
"We have presented our views. They need to respond but we will certainly be looking to some very specific outlines and measures that need to be taken to normalize the situation in Kirkuk," he said.
"There are concrete proposals: They will be to allow all the people displaced to go back, to change the names (of places) Saddam Hussein has changed, removing the administrative changes Saddam Hussein has done."
Saleh also warned that the Kurds wanted Talabani appointed the country's next president as a gesture of goodwill by the Arabs and recognition of their community's clout.
"If he were rejected merely because he is a Kurd, relegating the Kurds to second class (status), that is a position we will not accept."
Following a period of political jockeying, Jaafari of the Shiite Dawa party was picked last week as candidate of the UIA, which swept 140 of the 275 seats up for grabs in the country's legislative elections.
The Kurdish Alliance came second with 75 seats and has emerged as kingmaker in choosing the next government and recently picked up two more seats from Kurdish Islamists.
Also today, the group of Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for the deadly car bomb attack in the central city of Hilla, according to a statement posted on an Islamist website.
"A lion from the martyrdom-seeking brigade plunged into a gathering of apostates outside a center for the registration of police and (national) guard (recruits) in Hilla and detonated his booby-trapped car, killing 125 of them" on Monday, said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.
According to a hospital toll however, 118 people were killed and 147 wounded in the blast in the predominantly Shiite Muslim city.
"Your brethren in the Organization of the Al-Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers are pressing ahead with their jihad (holy war) until (Islamic) law governs the country," the statement said.
Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite leadership begin heavy bargaining
Tue Mar 1, 1:16 PM ET Mideast - AFP
ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - Negotiations to form Iraq's next government intensified as Shiite Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the frontrunner to become the next prime minister, and Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani held talks on forming a coalition.
AFP Photo / Tue Mar 1, 1:16 PM ET / Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari (L), likely to become Iraq's next prime minister, walks with Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani (C) as interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (R) follows in the northern city of Salahauddin.(AFP/Safin Hamed)
"We decided to continue the negotiations and create an Iraqi government of national unity, in which Arab Sunnis should play a role," Barzani told reporters, after the two met for several hours in the Kurdistan mountain retreat of Salahuddin.
The two groups, which have bickered in the past over Kurdish demand's for wide-ranging autonomy, papered over their differences as they vowed to create a national unity government.
"There was a sharing of our points of view and we have decided to continue the discussions," said Jaafari, who was due to visit the other main Kurdish leader, Jalal al-Talabani, in Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday.
The Shiite leader added that the sides had "resolved some points" but declined to elaborate. Jaafari, who headed a five-man delegation, reiterated the joint commitment to "the participation of all in the political process and on the necessity of Sunnis being represented in the next government."
But before joining any coalition, the Kurds are demanding written pledges that the next government will follow to the letter the interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), and work toward restoring Kirkuk to the Kurds, interim deputy prime minister Barham Saleh told AFP in Baghdad.
Saleh insisted there was "broad agreement" between Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and the Kurdish list, the two biggest vote getters in January's historic election, but repeated that the Kurds wanted more than words.
"We would need specific written pledges and agreements between all the various lists in parliament as far as their commitment to the provisions of the TAL," Saleh said.
Jafaari has previously said he wants to repeal the interim law's provision that a two-thirds majority in three provinces could veto the constitution, which is due to be drafted by the next government and put to a referendum in October.
Kurds -- who control the provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah -- see the provision as an iron-clad guarantee that they will be able to guard their virtual autonomy in northern Iraq and ensure they are never again persecuted by Iraq's Arab majority.
Kurdish suspicions towards Iraq's Shiite majority were stirred last March during the haggling over the interim law when Shiite members of Iraq's Governing Council boycotted the signing ceremony because of the provision.
Reference to the interim law was dropped from UN Security Council resolution 1546 last June which recognized the end of the US occupation, due to Shiite discontent over the near-sovereignty granted the Kurds in the document.
The TAL also covers the status of the oil rich city of Kirkuk, which Kurds demand be included in the Kurdistan region as part of any deal on a future Iraqi federation.
Kurds regard the city as their Jerusalem and claim it was stripped away from them by a forced settlement of Arabs in the region and the expulsion of thousands of Kurds during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Saleh said the Kurds also want written guarantees on Kirkuk.
"We have presented our views. They need to respond but we will certainly be looking to some very specific outlines and measures that need to be taken to normalize the situation in Kirkuk," he said.
"There are concrete proposals: They will be to allow all the people displaced to go back, to change the names (of places) Saddam Hussein has changed, removing the administrative changes Saddam Hussein has done."
Saleh also warned that the Kurds wanted Talabani appointed the country's next president as a gesture of goodwill by the Arabs and recognition of their community's clout.
"If he were rejected merely because he is a Kurd, relegating the Kurds to second class (status), that is a position we will not accept."
Following a period of political jockeying, Jaafari of the Shiite Dawa party was picked last week as candidate of the UIA, which swept 140 of the 275 seats up for grabs in the country's legislative elections.
The Kurdish Alliance came second with 75 seats and has emerged as kingmaker in choosing the next government and recently picked up two more seats from Kurdish Islamists.
Also today, the group of Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for the deadly car bomb attack in the central city of Hilla, according to a statement posted on an Islamist website.
"A lion from the martyrdom-seeking brigade plunged into a gathering of apostates outside a center for the registration of police and (national) guard (recruits) in Hilla and detonated his booby-trapped car, killing 125 of them" on Monday, said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.
According to a hospital toll however, 118 people were killed and 147 wounded in the blast in the predominantly Shiite Muslim city.
"Your brethren in the Organization of the Al-Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers are pressing ahead with their jihad (holy war) until (Islamic) law governs the country," the statement said.