Iraq government takes shape

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s new government is finally taking
shape and could be unveiled this week, negotiators said on
Tuesday, signaling a compromise among sectarian and ethnic
factions to rally behind Shi’ite strongman Nuri al-Maliki.

Guerrillas killed 19 people in one incident in Baghdad —
gunmen shot five men police said were members of the Mehdi Army
Shi’ite militia and then set off a car bomb in the same bus
garage that killed a further 14 people and wounded more than
30.

Senior negotiators from most groups involved in efforts to
form a national unity government told Reuters Maliki could name
his cabinet as early as Thursday, before the Muslim weekend and
four days ahead of a constitutional deadline set a month ago.

“The government is in its final form now. Maliki will
absolutely meet the constitutional deadline and will announce
the government before it,” said Dhafir al-Ani, spokesman of the
main Sunni bloc in parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front.

“Nobody wants him to fail. Even those who oppose the
political process will not put up obstacles.”

A senior Shi’ite negotiator said: “The government will be
ready soon … I mean probably in the next 48 hours.”

All played down the significance of a widely leaked list
indicating which party would take which ministry, saying there
were still disputes, notably on the health ministry. Many names
are still in play for key posts, including interior minister.

One surprise could be the nomination of controversial
former exile Ahmad Chalabi to that vital security job, several
sources said. The much-criticized interior minister may go to
finance.

CHALLENGE

Five months since an election hailed as a sign most Iraqis,
including the once dominant and now rebellious Sunni minority,
could come together behind the U.S.-sponsored political
process, communal violence has soared, raising questions on how
far any new government can stem bloodshed and a mounting
refugee crisis.

In a three-year-old political system used to pushing any
deadline to its limit — and indeed beyond — an early end to
the talks may be a sign Maliki has managed to put his inclusive
rhetoric into practice in his month as prime
minister-designate.

Once a hawkish defender of the Shi’ite Islamist corner in
parliament, some minority leaders and Western diplomats praise
what they call his new-found statesmanship and portray him as a
classic hard-liner strong enough to make concessions for peace.

He has faced some of his toughest opposition within his own
Alliance bloc. One party in the Shi’ite coalition walked out of
the negotiations in protest at losing the oil ministry.

It is now widely expected to go to another Alliance figure,
former nuclear physicist and dissident Hussain al-Shahristani.

Similarly, followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of
the Mehdi Army, are making veiled threats of a walkout if they
do not retain the health ministry, promised to the Sunnis.

Some officials said it was still possible Maliki may leave
sensitive posts such as interior and defense vacant if he
cannot resolve disputes this week. The former is expected to go
to a Shi’ite and the latter to a Sunni — but both, not least
due to heavy U.S. pressure — are subject to a veto by every
party.

Chalabi, a wealthy, U.S.-educated businessman turned
secular Shi’ite power broker on his return home, has emerged as
a possible interior minister, sources from several parties
said.

Though the outgoing deputy prime minister failed to win a
seat in December and has long lost his pre-war clout with the
Pentagon, he has won respect for his handling of Iraq’s
battered economy in the past year and is a consummate political
survivor.

INTERIOR MINISTRY

Whoever takes over the interior ministry in particular
faces a mammoth task of reining in dozens of armed groups
linked to political camps across the spectrum.

Over 130,000 U.S. troops are still mainly battling al Qaeda
and other Sunni insurgents three years after overthrowing
Saddam Hussein. But with public opinion turning against the
war, Washington has made clear it wants to start bringing them
home.

The U.S. military announced the deaths of three soldiers on
Tuesday in two roadside bomb blasts around Baghdad.

Defense witnesses for Saddam’s lesser-known co-defendants
gave evidence in their trial on Tuesday, hoping to show that
four minor Baath party officials caught up in the trial were
innocent of crimes against humanity.

Witnesses including sons of one defendant said the accused
too suffered in the reprisals, and saw their farms razed.
Saddam and three other senior figures were not in court.

(Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla, Fredrik Dahl,
Ibon Villelabeitia, Aseel Kami, Ahmed Rasheed and Alastair
Macdonald in Baghdad)