| al-Guardian can't wait for to write the headline, 'Iraqi Government Falls'. |
``The bombings in Hillah and again in Baghdad this morning are not going to derail the political process that Iraq is embarked upon,'' National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said Wednesday. ``The Iraqi government will go after and hunt down each and every one of these terrorists whether in Iraq or elsewhere.''
But forming Iraq's first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process. Shiite and Kurdish leaders, Iraq's new political powers, failed to reach agreement after two days of negotiations in the northern city of Irbil, with the clergy-backed candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving with only half the deal he needed.
The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which has 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, hopes to win backing from the 75 seats held by Kurdish political parties so it can muster the required two-thirds majority to insure control of top posts in the new government.
Al-Jaafari indicated after the talks that the alliance was ready to accept a Kurdish demand that one of its leaders, Jalal Talabani, become president. ``We, the United Iraqi Alliance, and I personally respect the Kurdish choice for Jalal Talabani to be their nominee for the presidential post. I will convey this honestly to my brothers in the alliance,'' he said.
However, he would not commit to other demands, including the expansion of Kurdish autonomous areas south to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Kurdish leaders have demanded constitutional guarantees for their northern regions, including self-rule and reversal of the ``Arabization'' of Kirkuk and other northern areas. Saddam Hussein relocated Iraqi Arabs to the region in a bid to secure the oil fields there.
Politicians had hoped to convene the new parliament by Sunday. But Ali Faisal, of the Shiite Political Council, said the date was now ``postponed'' and that a new date had not been set. ``The blocs failed to reach an understanding over the formation of the government,'' said Faisal, whose council is part of the United Iraqi Alliance.
The Kurds, he added, were ``the basis of the problem'' in the negotiations. ``The Kurds are wary about al-Jaafari's nomination to head the government. They are concerned that a strict Islamic government might be formed,'' al-Faisal said. ``Negotiations and dialogue are ongoing.''
In another twist, alliance deputy and former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi was to meet Thursday with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose party won 40 seats in the assembly. It was unclear why the meeting between the two rivals was taking place. Both Allawi and Chalabi are secular Shiites opposed to making Iraq an Islamic state. Concerns over a possible theocracy are especially pertinent because the main task of the new assembly will be to write a constitution.