Maliki to form Iraq government

By Mussab al-Khairalla and Ibon Villelabeitia

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – After months of deadlock, President
Jalal Talabani asked Shi’ite politician Jawad al-Maliki on
Saturday to head Iraq’s first full-term government since U.S.
forces toppled Saddam Hussein.

Jawad al-Maliki, a tough-talking Shi’ite leader, will face
the monumental task of tackling the insurgency, easing
sectarian strife, neutralizing militias and rescuing the
economy in a country many say is on the verge of sectarian
civil war.

“I would like to inform the brothers and sisters that we
decided unanimously to endorse our dear brother Nouri Jawad
al-Maliki to head the cabinet,” Talabani said in parliament.

He was nominated on Friday by the Shi’ite Alliance, the
largest bloc in parliament, in a compromise vote that ended
four months of political deadlock.

Maliki immediately called for Iraq’s militias to be merged
with the armed forces. The United States wants them disarmed.

“Arms should be in the hands of the government. There is a
law that calls for the merging of militias with the armed
forces,” Maliki said in his first policy speech after Talabani
asked him to head the new government.

The United States hopes a unity government of Shi’ites,
Sunni Arabs and Kurds will foster stability and enable it to
start bringing home its more than 130,000 troops.

Maliki, an official in Iraq’s oldest Islamist party, now
has one month to form a cabinet and put it to a vote. He sought
to shake off his hardline Shi’ite image and present himself as
a man capable of uniting Shi’ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

“We are going to form a family that will not be based on
sectarian or ethnic backgrounds,” he told a news conference.

The Alliance chose Maliki after its original candidate,
interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, bowed out to end the
stalemate after other parties objected to his candidature.

Parliament earlier re-elected Talabani as president. A
Kurd, Talabani is the first non-Arab president of an Arab
country.

Sunni Islamist Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was also elected as
parliamentary speaker. A former medical officer in Saddam’s
army, he was jailed for joining outlawed Islamist groups. The
post had been expected to go to a Sunni Arab.

Appointing officials overseeing powerful ministries,
including the interior, defense and oil portfolios, will test
Maliki’s ability as a deal-maker.

Sunni leaders have accused the Shi’ite-run Interior
Ministry of having death squads targeting Sunnis so there may
be a protracted battle over that portfolio. Shi’ites deny the
charge.

Washington had said the four-month political vacuum in Iraq
was fuelling bloodshed.

TOUGH LINE

Maliki is a tough Shi’ite from the Dawa Party who has
pushed for executing Sunni insurgents who have killed Iraqis
and purging the government of former members of Saddam’s Baath
party. He had been widely viewed as a sectarian politician, but
Sunni Arab leaders said they can live with him.

The support of the Sunni leaders is vital as the insurgents
draw their support from the minority community. Sunnis were
dominant during Saddam Hussein’s rule but the majority Shi’ite
Muslims now hold sway.

“We noticed from his previous statements that he had
sectarian stands. It is wrong to say we should not have fears
about him. But we ask him to learn lessons from the recent
past,” said Hussein al-Falluja, from the main Arab Sunni bloc.

“He has many good traits. During the negotiations on
drafting the constitution he stressed the unity of Iraq and the
need to distribute Iraq’s resources fairly.”

Sectarian violence has exploded since the February bombing
of a Shi’ite shrine touched off reprisals and
counter-reprisals.

Police on Saturday found 12 bodies in several parts of
Baghdad. Such killings are common in Iraq, where hundreds of
bodies with bullet holes and torture marks have turned up.

Three years after U.S. forces invaded, Iraqis have grown
disillusioned with Iraq’s political class as bombings,
shootings, kidnappings and crime plague the country.