Iraq set for government

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament should confirm a new
government in office on Saturday, ending months of inertia that
have seen sectarian bloodshed mount and launching a crucial new
phase in the U.S.-backed project to install democracy.

Aides to Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and senior
negotiators said a basic deal was struck in talks late on
Friday that left the key posts of interior and defense minister
vacant.

There may be some fine-tuning at the last minute but, with
jobs for nearly all parliamentary groups barring small Shi’ite
and Sunni parties that refused to join, parliamentary approval
for Maliki’s ministers is likely to be a formality.

The government can be sure of an enthusiastic welcome in
Washington, where frustration with Iraqis’ sectarian and ethnic
haggling has grown over the five months since an election
hailed as a final step from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship to
democracy.

“For the first time, Sunnis, Kurds and Shias participate
with a four-year mandate,” a senior U.S. official said in
Washington. “This is an opportunity to make some changes.”

For President George W. Bush, who launched the invasion in
2003 in the name of Iraqi freedom and ending a perceived threat
from Saddam, stability is key to bringing home 130,000 American
troops — a move that might stem his falling approval ratings.

Iraqis too, who turned out in large numbers across all the
rival communities, have been growing impatient for a leadership
that can address their massive problems — security certainly,
but also a devastated economy and poor basic public services.

VACANCIES

Under a constitutional timetable, Maliki’s 30 days to form
a government end on Monday. Despite confident assertions last
month that he would need only a week or two, wrangling among
and within Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs came close to
thwarting him, as it did his ally and predecessor Ibrahim
al-Jaafari.

Still, the key security posts at interior and defense have
eluded his dealmaking skills, even though all parties are
agreed that the jobs should go to a Shi’ite and Sunni
respectively.

If no 11th-hour solution is found before the 275 members of
the Council of Representatives vote in the fortified Green Zone
on Saturday, Maliki will occupy the interior ministry for a
week and Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi will run
defense.

Complaints among Saddam’s once dominant Sunni minority that
the Shi’ite majority brought to power by the U.S. invasion was
abusing its control of the interior ministry by running death
squads within the police focused attention on the interior
post.

An upsurge in sectarian killings, some carried out by men
in uniform, after February’s bombing of a major Shi’ite shrine
has prompted growing alarm about the threat of civil war.

Hundreds of people are being killed every month in Baghdad
alone and tens of thousands have fled their homes. Some fear
the communal violence may have gone too far to reverse.

Maliki, a tough-talking defender of Shi’ite interests since
his return from exile in 2003, has won praise from Sunnis for
his willingness to seek consensus. But many question whether a
government cobbled together according to religious and ethnic
labeling can overcome centrifugal forces tearing Iraq apart.

ECONOMIC MINISTRIES

The U.S. ambassador publicly insisted on a “non-sectarian”
figure to run the interior ministry. However, senior officials
said outgoing interior minister, Bayan Jabor, had secured the
finance ministry, despite hostility toward him in Washington.

A civil engineer powerfully connected within the big
Shi’ite Islamist party SCIRI, Jabor will play a key role in
efforts to revive the Iraqi economy, along with new oil
minister Hussain al-Shahristani, a nuclear physicist and senior
Shi’ite Islamist.

Maliki’s Kurdish deputy prime minister Barham Salih, the
outgoing planning minister, is expected also to take a big role
in overseeing economic reconstruction. The other deputy premier
is Sunni politician Salam al-Zobaie, senior officials said.

Ahmad Chalabi, an outgoing deputy premier, has not been
given a portfolio but may have some role in the new
administration, which could run Iraq for the four years until
the next parliamentary election. Chalabi was once a Pentagon
favorite but has since fallen out of favor in Washington.

Senior officials said more than half the 30 or so
ministries — the number could change with final agreements —
are allocated to the Shi’ite Alliance, which has close to a
majority in parliament but is divided among more than a dozen
factions.

Sunnis, whose participation in the political process is
vital after three years of rejection and revolt, have at least
five portfolios while Kurds, who have the presidency, have
about four, including keeping Hoshiyar Zebari as foreign
minister.

The secular group of former prime minister Iyad Allawi also
appears to have won four seats, negotiators said.

Followers of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,
a close ally of Washington’s foes in Shi’ite Iran, appeared to
have secured at least three seats, including health, a post
U.S. officials had hoped they would lose. Control of medical
services has been an important element in enhancing Sadr’s
popularity.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Fredrik Dahl
and Ibon Villelabeitia)